
lOGRAPHY 





TEVENSON 




Class £ ! 1 ^ 



Book. »-j 



Copyright ]J^_ 



COFk'KIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A CHILD'S GUIDE TO 
BIOGRAPHY 




WASHINGTON 



A CHILD'S GUIDE TO 
BIOGRAPHY 

AMERICAN — MEN OF ACTION 



BY 



BURTON E. ^TEVENSON 

AUTHOE OF "a SOLDIEK OF VIRGINIA," ETC. ; COMPILER OF "DAYS 

AND DEEDS— POETRY," "DAYS AND DEEDS— PROSE, " 

"poems OF AMERICAN HISTORY," ETC. 



New York 
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

1909 



Ss^ 



COPYEIGHT, 1909, BY 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 



Published, December, 1909 



THE TROW PBESS. KEW YORK 



5GI.A25;;;^-^i 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



CHAPTER 

I. — A Talk About Biography H 

II. — The Beginners 25 

Summary to Chapter II 69 

III. — Washington to Lincoln 76 

Summary to Chapter III 123 

IV — Lincoln and His Successors .... 129 

Summary to Chapter IV 164 

V — Statesmen 169 

Summary to Chapter V 208 

VI. — Pioneers 214 

Summary to Chapter VI 258 

VII. — Great Soldiers 262 

Summary to Chapter VII 311 

VIII.— Great Sailors 320 

Summary to Chapter VIII 377 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 



Washington Frontispiece 

Columbus 34 

Jefferson 94 

Jackson 110 

Lincoln 140 

Cleveland 158 

Franklin 174 

Webster 188 

Boone 216 

Grant 286 

Lee 298 

Dewey 372 



A CHILD'S GUIDE TO 
BIOGRAPHY 

AMERICAN — MEN OF ACTION 



A GUIDE TO BIOGRAPHY 

CHAPTER I 
A TALK ABOUT BIOGRAPHY 

XT O doubt most of you think biography dull read- 
"^ ^ ing. You would much rather sit down with a 
good story. But have you ever thought what a story 
is? It is nothing but a bit of make-believe biography. 
Let us see, in the first place, just what biography 
means. It is formed from two Greek words, " bios,'' 
meaning life, and " graphein," meaning to write : 
life-writing. In other words, a biography is the 
story of the life of some individual. ISTow what the 
novelist does is to write the biographies of the peo- 
ple of his story; not usually from the cradle to the 
grave, but for that crucial period of their careers 
which marked some great success or failure; and he 
tries to make them so life-like and natural that we 
will half-believe they are real people, and that the 
things he tells about really happened. Sometimes, 
to accomplish this, he even takes the place of one of 
his own characters, and tells the story in the first 
person, as Dickens does in " David Copperfield." 
That is called autobiography, which is merely a third 
Greek word, " autos,'' meaning self, added to the 

11 



A Guide to Biography 

others. An automobile, for instance, is a self-mov- 
ing vehicle. So autobiography is the biography of 
oneself. The great aim of the novelist is, by any 
means within his power, to make his tale seem true, 
and the truer it is — the truer to human nature and 
the facts of life — the greater is his triumph. 

IvTow why is it that everyone likes to read these 
make-believe biographies? Because we are all inter- 
ested in what other people are doing and thinking, 
and because a good story tells in an entertaining 
way about life-like people, into whom the story-teller 
has breathed something of his own personality. 
Then how does it come that so few of us care to read 
the biographies of real people, which ought to be all 
the more interesting because they are true instead 
of make-believe? Well, in the first place, because most 
of us have never tried to read biography in the right 
way, and so think it tiresome and uninteresting. 
Haven't you, more than once, made up your mind 
that you wouldn't like a thing, just from the look 
of it, without ever having tasted it? You know the 
old proverb, " One man's food is another man's 
poison." It isn't a true proverb — indeed, few pro- 
verbs are true — because we are all built alike, and 
no man's food will poison any other man; although 
the other man may think so, and may really show all 
the symptoms of poisoning, just because he has made 
up his mind to. 

Most of you approach biography in that way. 
You look through the book, and you see it isn't 
divided up into dialogue, as a story is, and there are 

12 



A Talk About Biography 

no illustrations, only pictures of crabbed-looking 
people, and so you decide that you are not going to 
like it, and consequently you don't like it, no matter 
how likeable it is. 

It isn't wholly your fault that you have acquired 
this feeling. Strangely enough, most biographies 
give no such impression of reality as good fiction 
does. John Ridd, for instance, is more alive for 
most of us than Thomas Jefferson — the one is a flesh- 
and-blood personality, while the other is merely a 
name. This is because the average biographer ap- 
parently does not comprehend that his first duty is 
to make his subject seem alive, or lacks the art to 
do it; and so produces merely a lay-figure, draped 
with the clothing of the period. And usually he 
misses the point and fails miserably because he con- 
cerns himself with the mere doing of deeds, and not 
with that greatest of all things, the development of 
character. 

All great biographies are written with insight and 
imagination, as well as with truth; that is, the biog- 
rapher tries, in the first place, to find out not only 
what his subject did, but what he thought; he tries 
to realize him thoroughly, and then, reconstructing 
the scenes through which he moved, interprets him 
for us. He endeavors to give us the rounded impres- 
sion of a human being — of a man who really walked 
and talked and loved and hated — so that we may 
feel that we knew him. But most biographies are 
seemingly written about statues on pedestals, and 
not good statues at that. 

13 



A Guide to Biography 

I am hoping to see the rise, some day, of a new 
school of biography, which will not hesitate to dis- 
card the inessential, which will disdain to glorify its 
subject, whose first duty it will be to strip away the 
falsehoods of tradition and to show us the real man, 
not hiding his imperfections and yet giving them 
no more prominence than they really bore in his life ; 
which will realize that to the man nothing w^as of 
importance except the growth of his spirit, and that 
to us nothing else concerning him is of any mo- 
ment; which will show him to us illumined, as it 
w^ere, from within, and which will count any other 
sort of life-history as vain and worthless. What 
we need is biography by X-ray, and not by tallow 
candle. 

Until that time comes, dear reader, you yourself 
must supply the X-ray of insight. If you can learn 
to do that, you will find history and biography the 
most interesting of studies. Biography is, of course, 
the basis of all history, since history is merely the 
record of man's failures and successes; and, read 
thus, it is a wonderful and inspiring thing, for the 
successes so overtop the failures, the good so out- 
weighs the bad. By the touchstone of imagination, 
even badly written biography may be colored and 
vitalized. Try it — try to see the man you are read- 
ing about as an actual human being; make him come 
out of the pages of the book and stand before you; 
give him a personality. Watch for his humors, his 
mistakes, his failings — be sure he had them, how- 
ever exalted he may have been — they will help to 

14 



A Talk About Biography 

make Mm human. The spectacle of "Washington, 
riding forward in a towering rage at the battle of 
Monmouth, has done more to make him real for us 
than any other incident in his life. So the picture 
that Franklin gives of his landing at Philadelphia 
and walking up Market street in the early morn- 
ing, a loaf of bread under either arm, brings him 
right home to us; though this simple, kindly, and 
humorous philosopher is one of the realest figures 
on the pages of history. "We love Andrew Jackson 
for his irascible wrong-headedness, Farragut for his 
burst of wrath in Mobile harbor, Lincoln for liis 
homely wisdom. 

I have said that, read as the record of man's fail- 
ures and successes, history is an inspiring thing. Per- 
haps of the history of no country is this so true as of 
that of ours. By far the larger part of our great 
men have started at the very bottom of the ladder, 
in poverty and obscurity, and have fought their way 
up round by round against all the forces of society. 
JSTowhere else have inherited wealth and inherited 
position counted for so little as in America. Again, 
we have had no wars of greed or ambition, unless the 
war with Mexico could be so called. We have, at 
least, had no tyrants — instead, we have witnessed the 
spectacle, unique in history, of a great general win- 
ning his country's freedom, and then disbanding his 
army and retiring to his farm. " The Cincinnatus 
of the West," Byron called him; and John Kichard 
Green adds, ^^ 'No nobler figure ever stood in the 
forefront of a nation's life." He has emerged from 

15 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

the mists of tradition, from the sanctimonious wrap- 
pings in which the early biographers disguised him, 
has softened and broadened into the most himian 
of men, and has won our love as well as our 
veneration. 

George Washington was the founder. Beside his 
name, two others stand out, serene and dominant: 
Christopher Columbus, the discoverer; Abraham 
Lincoln, the preserver. And yet, neither Columbus, 
nor Wasliington, nor Lincoln was what we call a 
genius — a genius, that is, in the sense in which 
Shakespeare or I^Tapoleon or Galileo was a genius. 
But they combined in singular degree those three 
characteristics without which no man may be truly 
great: sincerity and courage and singleness of pur- 
pose. 

It is not without a certain awe that we con- 
template these men — men like ourselves, let us al- 
ways remember, but, in many ways, how different! 
]^ot different in that they were infallible or above 
temptation; not different in that they never made 
mistakes; but different in that they each of them 
possessed an inward vision of the true and the eternal, 
while most of us grope blindly amid the false and 
trivial. What that vision was, and with what high 
faith and complete devotion they followed it, we 
shall see in the story of their lives. 

This is the basic difference between great men 
and little ones — the little ones are concerned solely 
with to-day; the great ones think only of the future. 
They have gained that largeness of vision and of 

16 



A Talk About Biograpliy 

understanding which perceives the pettiness of every- 
day affairs and which disregards them for gi'eater 
things. They live in the world, indeed, but in a 
world modified and colored by the divine ferment 
within them. There are some who claim that Amer- 
ica has never produced a genius of the first order, 
or, at most, but two; however that may be, she has 
produced, as has no other country, men with great 
hearts and seeing eyes and devoted souls who have 
spent themselves for their country and their race. 

One hears, sometimes, a grumbler complaining of 
the defects of a republic; yet, certainly, in these 
United States, the republican form of government, 
established with no little fear and uncertainty by 
the Fathers, has, with all its defects, received trium- 
phant vindication. Nowhere more triumphant than 
in the men it has produced, the story of whose lives 
is the story of its history. 

There are two kinds of greatness — greatness of 
deed and greatness of thought. The first kind is 
shown in the lives of such men as Columbus and 
Washington and Farragut, who translated thought 
into action and who did great things. The second 
kind is the greatness of authors and artists and sci- 
entists, who write great books, or paint great pictures 
or make great discoveries, and this sort of greatness 
will be considered in a future volume; for all there 
has been room for in this one is the story of the lives 
of America's great " men of action.'' And even 
of them, only a sketch in broad outline has been pos- 
sible in space so limited ; but this little book is merely 

IT 



A Guide to Biography 

a guide-post, as it were, pointing toward the road 
leading to the city where these great men dwell — the 
City of American Biography. 

It is a city peopled with heroes. There are Travis 
and Crockett and Bowie, who held The Alamo until 
they all were slain; there is Craven, who stepped 
aside that his pilot might escape from his sinking 
ship; there is La\vrence, whose last words are still 
ringing down the years; there is Nathan Hale, im- 
mortalized by his lofty bearing beneath the scaffold; 
there is Robert Gould Shaw, who led a forlorn hope 
at the head of a despised race; — even to name them is 
to review those great events in American history 
which bring proud tears to the eyes of every lover 
of his country. 

Of all this we shall tell, as simply as may be, giv- 
ing the story of our country's history and develop- 
ment in terms of its great men. So far as possible, 
the text has been kept free of dates, because great 
men are of all time, and, compared with the deeds 
themselves, their dates are of minor importance. But 
a summary at the end of each chapter gives, for 
purposes of convenient reference, the principal dates 
in the lives of the men whose achievements are con- 
sidered in it. 

In the preparation of these thumb-nail sketches, 
the present writer makes no pretense of original in- 
yestigation. He has taken his material wherever he 
could find it, making sure only that it was accurate, 
and his sole purpose has been to give, in as few 

18 



A Talk About Biography 

words as possible, a correct impression oi the man 
and what he did. From the facts as given, how- 
ever, he has drawn his own conchisions, with some 
of which, no doubt, many people will disagree. But 
he has tried to paint the men truly, in a few strokes, 
as they appeared to him, without seeking to conceal 
their weaknesses, but at the same time without mag- 
nifying them — remembering always that they were 
men, subject to mistakes and errors, to be honored 
for such true vision as they possessed ; remarkable, 
many of them, for heroism and high devotion, and 
worthy a lasting place in the grateful memory of 
their country. 

The passage of years has a way of diminishing 
the stature of men thought great, and often of in- 
creasing that of men thought little. Few American 
statesmen, for example, loom as large to-day as they 
appeared to their contemporaries. Looking back at 
them, we perceive that, for the most part, they 
wasted their days in fighting wind-mills, or in doing 
things which had afterwards to be undone. Only 
through the vista of the years do we get a true per- 
spective, just as only from a distance can we see 
which peaks of the mountain-range loom highest. 
But even the mist of years cannot dim essential 
heroism and nobility of achievement. Indeed, it en- 
hances them; the voyage of Columbus seems to us 
a far greater thing than his contemporaries thought 
it; "Washington is for us a more venerable figure than 
he was for the new-bom Union; and Lincoln is just 
coming into his own as a leader among men. 

19 



A Guide to Biography 

Every boy and girl ought to try to gain as true and 
clear an idea as possible of their country's history, 
and of the men who made that history. It is a pleas- 
ant study, and grows more and more fascinating as 
one proceeds with it. The great pleasure in read- 
ing is to understand every w^ord, and so to catch the 
writer's thought completely. KnoAvledge always 
gives pleasure in just that way — by a wider under- 
standing. Indeed, that is the principal aim of educa- 
tion: to enable the individual to get the most out of 
life by broadening his horizon, so that he sees more 
and understands more than he could do if he re- 
mained ignorant. And since you are an Amer- 
ican, you will need especially to understand your 
country. You will be quite unable to grasp the 
meaning of the references to her story which are 
made every day in conversation, in newspapers, in 
books and magazines, unless you know that story; 
and you will also be unable properly to fulfil 
your duties as a citizen of this Republic unless you 
know it. 

For the earliest years, and, more especially, for 
the story of the deadly struggle between French and 
English for the possession of the continent, the books 
to read above all others are those of Francis Park- 
man. He has clothed history with romantic fasci- 
nation, and no one who has not read him can 
have any adequate idea of the glowing and life-like 
Avay in which those Frenchmen and Spaniards and 
Englishmen work out their destinies in his pages. 
The story of Columbus and of the early explorers 

20 



A Talk About Biography 

will be found in John Fiske's " Discovery of Amer- 
ica/' a book written simply and interestingly, but 
without Parkman's insight and wizardry of style — 
which, indeed, no other American historian can 
equal. A little book by Charles F. Lummis, called 
" The Spanish Pioneers,'' also gives a vivid picture 
of those early explorers. The story of John Smith 
and William Bradford and Peter Stuyvesant and 
William Penn will also be found in Fiske's histories 
dealing with Virginia and New England and the 
Dutch and Quaker colonies. Almost any boy or girl 
will find them interesting, for they are written with 
care, in simple language, and not without an engag- 
ing humor. 

There are so many biographies of Washington that 
it is difficult to choose among them. Perhaps the 
most interesting are those by Woodrow Wilson, 
Horace E. Scudder, Paul Leicester Ford, and Henry 
Cabot Lodge — all well-written and with an effort 
to give a true impression of the man. Of the other 
Presidents, no better biographies exist than those 
in the " American Statesmen " series, where, of 
course, the lives of the principal statesmen are also 
to be found. ISTot all of them, nor, perhaps, even 
most of them are worth reading by the average boy 
or girl. There is no especial reason why the life of 
any man should be studied in detail after he has 
ceased to be a factor in history. Of the Presidents, 
Washing-ton, Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln are still 
vital to the life of to-day, and of the statesmen there 
are a few, like Franklin, Hamilton, Webster, Cal- 

21 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

honn and Clay, wliose influence is still felt in our 
national life, but tlie remainder are negligible, ex- 
cept tliat you must, of course, be familiar in a broad 
way with their characters and achievements to under- 
stand your country's story. 

History is the best place to learn the stories of 
the pioneers, soldiers and sailors. Archer Butler 
Hulburt has a little book, " Pilots of the Republic,'' 
which tells about some of the pioneers; John Fiske 
wrote a short history of " The War of Independence," 
which will tell you all you need know about the 
soldiers of the Revolution, with the exception of 
Washington; and you can learn about the battles of 
the Civil AVar from any good history of the United 
States. There is a series called the " Great Com- 
manders Series," which tells the story, in detail, of 
the lives of American commanders on land and sea, 
but there is no reason why you should read any of 
them, with the exception of Lee, Farragut, and pos- 
sibly Grant, though you will find the lives of Taylor 
and " Stonewall " Jackson interesting in themselves. 
For the sailors, with the exception of Farragut, 
Barnes's " Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors " will 
suffice; though every boy will enjoy reading Mac- 
lay's " History of the American l^avy," where the 
story of our great sea-fights is told better than it has 
ever been told before. 

These books may be found in almost any public 
library, and on the shelves there, too, you will prob- 
ably find Elbert Hubbard's " Little Journeys," which 
give flashlight portraits of statesmen and soldiers 

22 



A Talk About BiogTapliy 

and many other people, vivid and interesting, but 
sometimes distorted, as flashlights have a way of 
being. 

Perhaps the librarian will permit you to look over 
the shelves where the biographies and works deal- 
ing with American history are kept. Don't be over- 
awed by the number of volumes, because there are 
scores and scores which are of no importance to 
you. Theodore Parker had a wrong idea about read- 
ing, for once upon a time he undertook to read all 
the books in a library, beginning at the first one and 
proceeding along shelf after shelf. He never fin- 
ished the task, of course, because he found out, after 
a while, that there are many books which are not 
worth reading, and many more which are of value 
only to specialists in certain departments of knowl- 
edge, ^o man can " know it all.'' But every man 
should know one thing well, and have a general 
knowledge of the rest. 

For instance, none but an astronomer need know 
the mathematics of the science, but all of us should 
know the principal facts concerning the universe 
and the solar system, and it is a pleasure to us to 
recognize the different constellations as we gaze up 
at the heavens on a cloudless night, l^one but a 
lawyer need spend his time reading law-books, but 
most of us want to know the broad principles upon 
which justice is administered. JSTo one but an econ- 
omist need bother with the abstract theories of polit- 
ical econorny, but if we are to be good citizens, we 
must have a knowledge of its foundations, so that 

23 



A Guide to Biogi'aphj 

we maj weigh intelligently the solutions of public 
problems which different parties offer. 

So if you are permitted to look along the shelves 
of the public library, you will have no concern with 
the great majority of the books you see there; but 
here and there one will catch your eye which in- 
terests you, and these are the ones for you to read. 
You have no idea how the habit of right reading 
will grow upon you, and what a delightful and valu- 
able habit it will prove to be. Like any other good 
habit, it takes pains at first to establish, an effort of 
will and self-control. But that very effort helps in 
the forming of character, and the habit of right read- 
ing is perhaps the best and most far-reaching in its 
effects that any boy or girl can form. I hope that 
this little volume, and the other books which I have 
mentioned, will help you to form it. 



24 



CHAPTER II 
THE BEGINNERS 

XT EARLY ^ve hundred years ago, there lived, in 
-^ ^ the beautiful old Italian city of Genoa, a poor 
wool-comber named Dominico Colombo, and about 
1446, a son was born to him and to his wife, Susanna, 
and in due time christened Christoforo. 

The world into which the child was born was very 
different to the one in which we live. Europe was 
known, and northern Africa, and western Asia; but 
to the east stretched the fabulous country of the 
Grand Khan, Cathay, Cipango, and farthest Ind; 
while to the west rolled the Sea of Darkness, peo- 
pled with unimaginable terrors. 

Of the youth of Christopher Columbus, as we call 
him, little is known. No doubt it was much like 
other boyhoods, and one likes to picture him, in such 
hours of leisure as he had, strolling about the streets 
of Genoa, listening to the talk, staring in at the 
shop-windows, or watching the busy life in the 
harbor. That the latter had a strong attraction for 
him there can be no doubt, for though he followed 
his father's trade till early manhood, he finally found 
his real vocation as a seaman. It was on the ocean 
that true romance dwelt, for it led to strange lands 

25 



A Guide to Biography 

and peoples, and no one knew what wonders and 
mysteries lay behind each horizon. It was there, 
too, high courage was developed and endurance, for 
it was there that men did battle hand to hand with 
nature's mightiest forces. It was the one career of 
the age which called to the bold and adventurous 
spirit. What training Columbus received or what 
voyages he made we know not; but when, at about 
the age of thirty, he steps into the light of history, it 
is as a man with a wide and thorough knowledge of 
both the theory and practice of seamanship; a man, 
too, of keen mind and indomitable w^ill, and with a 
mighty purpose brooding in his heart. 

It was natural enough that his eyes should turn 
to Portugal, for Portugal was the greatest sea-faring 
nation of the age. Her sailors had discovered the 
Madeira Islands, and crept little by little doA\Ti the 
coast of Africa, rounding this headland and that, 
searching always for a passage to India, which 
they knew lay somewhere to the east, until, at last, 
they had sailed triumphantly around the Cape of 
Good Hope. It is worth remarking that Colum- 
bus's brother, Bartholomew, of whom we hear so 
little, but who did so much for his brother's fame, 
was a member of that expedition, and Columbus 
himself must have gathered no little inspiration 
from it. 

So to Lisbon Columbus went, and his ardent spirit 
found a great stimulus in the adventurous atmos- 
phere of that bustling city. He went to work as a 
map-maker, marrying the daughter of one of the 

26 



The Beginners 



&^ 



captains of Prince Henry the Navigator, from whom 
he secured a great variety of maps, charts and mem- 
oranda. His business kept him in close touch with 
both mariners and astronomers, so that he was ac- 
quainted with every development of both discovery 
and theory. In more than one mind the conviction 
was growing up that the eastern shore of Asia could 
be reached by sailing westward from Europe — a con- 
viction springing naturally enough from the be- 
lief that the earth was round, which was steadily 
gaining wider and wider acceptance. In fact, a 
Florentine astronomer named Toscanelli furnished 
Columbus with a map showing how this voyage could 
be accomplished, and Columbus afterwards used this 
map in determining his route. 

That the idea was not original wdth Columbus 
takes nothing from his fame; his greatness lies in 
being the first fully to grasp its meaning, fully to 
believe it, fully to devote his life to it. For the last 
measure of a man's devotion to an idea is his willing- 
ness to stake his life upon it, as Columbus staked his. 
The idea possessed him; there was room in him only 
for a dogged determination to realize it, to trample 
down such obstacles as might arise to keep him from 
his goal. And obstacles enough there were, for many 
years of waiting and disappointment lay before him 
— years during which, a shabby and melancholy fig- 
ure, laughed at and scorned, mocked by the very 
children in the streets, he " begged his way from court 
to court, to offer to princes the discovery of a world." 
And here again was his true greatness — that he did 

27 



A Guide to Biography 

not despair, that his spirit remained unbroken and 
his high heart still capable of hope. 

Yet let us not idealize him too much. The eager- 
ness to reach the Indies was wholly because of the 
riches which they possessed. The spice trade was 
especially coveted, and tradition told of golden cities 
of fabulous wealth and beauty which lay in the 
country to the east. The great motive behind all the 
early voyages was hope of gain, and Columbus had 
his full share of it. Yet there grew up within him, in 
time, something more than this — a love of the proj- 
ect for its own sake — though to the very last, a 
little overbalanced, perhaps, by his great idea, he 
insisted upon the rewards and honors which must 
be his in case of success. 

With his route well-outlined and his plans care- 
fully matured, Columbus turned naturally to the 
King of Portugal, John IL, as a man interested in 
all nautical enterprise, and especially interested in 
finding a route to the Indies. That crafty monarch 
listened to Columbus attentively and was evidently 
impressed, for he took possession of the maps and 
plans which Columbus had prepared, under pretense 
of examining them while considering the project, 
placed them in the hands of one of his own captains 
and dispatched him secretly to try the route. That 
captain, whose name has been lost to history, must 
afterwards have been chagrined enough at the man- 
ner in which he missed immortal fame, for, after 
sailing a few days to the westward, he turned back 
and reported to his royal master that the thing could 

28 



The Beginners 

not be done. His was not tlie heart for such an 
enterprise. 

Columbus, learning of the king's treachery, left 
the court in disgust, and sending his brother, Bar- 
tholomew, to lay the plan before the King of Eng- 
land, himself proceeded to Spain, whose rulers, Fer- 
dinand and Isabella, were perhaps the most enlight- 
ened of the age. Of Bartholomew's adventures in 
England little is known. One thing alone is certain 
— England missed the great opportunity just as 
Portugal had. And for long years it seemed that, 
in Spain, Columbus would have no better fortune. 
The Spanish monarchs listened to him with interest 
— as who w^ould not? — and appointed a council of 
astronomers and map-makers to examine the project 
and to pass upon its feasibility. This council, not 
"without the connivance of the king and queen, who 
were absorbed in w^ar with the Moors, and who, at 
the same time, did not wish the plan to be taken 
elsewhere, kept Columbus waiting for six years, al- 
ternating between hope and despair, and finally re- 
ported that the project was " vain and impossible of 
execution.'^ 

Indignant at thought of the years he had wasted, 
Columbus determined to proceed to Paris, to seek an 
audience of the King of France. His wife was dead, 
and he started for Palos, with his little son, Diego, 
intending to leave the boy with his wife's sister thei*e, 
while he himself journeyed on to Paris. Trudging 
wearily across the country, they came one night to 
the convent of La Rabida, and Columbus stopped to 

29 



A Guide to Biography 

ask for a crust of bread and cup of water for the 
child. The prior, Juan Perez de Marchena, struck 
by his noble bearing, entered into conversation with 
him and was soon so interested that he invited the 
travellers in. 

Marchena had been Isabella's confessor, and still 
had great influence with her. After carefully con- 
sidering the project which Columbus laid before him, 
he went to the queen in person and implored her to 
reconsider it. His plea was successful, and Columbus 
was again summoned to appear at court, a small sum 
of money being sent him so that he need not appear 
in rags. The Spanish monarchs receiA^ed him well, 
but when they found that he demanded the title of 
admiral at once, and, in case of success, the title of 
viceroy, together with a tenth part of all profits 
resulting from either trade or conquest, they ab- 
ruptly broke off the negotiations, and Columbus, 
mounting a mule which had been given him, started 
a second time for Paris. He had proceeded four or 
"Q-Ye miles, in what sadness and turmoil of spirit may 
be imagined, when a royal messenger, riding furi- 
ously, overtook him and bade him return. His 
terms had been accepted. 

This is what had happened: In despair at the de- 
parture of Columbus, Luis de Santangel, receiver of 
the revenues of Aragon, and one of the few converts 
to his theories, had obtained an audience of the 
queen, and pointed out to her, with impassioned elo- 
quence, the glory which Spain would win should 
Columbus be successful. The queen's patriotic ardor 

30 



The Beginners 

was enkindled, and when Ferdinand still hesitated, 
she cried, " I undertake the enterprise for my own 
crown of Castile. I will pledge my jewels to raise 
the money that is needed! " Santangel assured her 
that he himself was ready to provide the money, and 
advanced seventeen thousand florins from the coffers 
of Aragon, so that Ferdinand paid for the expedition, 
after all. 

It is in no way strange that the demands of Co- 
lumbus should have been thought excessive; indeed, 
the wonderful thing is that they should, under any 
circumstances, have been agreed to. Here was a 
man, to all appearances a penniless adventurer, ask- 
ing for honors, dignities and rewards which any 
grandee of Spain might have envied him. That they 
should have been granted was due to the impulsive 
sympathy of Isabella and the indifference of her 
royal consort, who said neither yes nor no; though, 
in the light of subsequent events, it is not improb- 
able that the thought may have crossed his mind 
that royal favor may always be withdrawn, and that 
the hand which gives may also take away. 

But though Columbus had triumphed in this par- 
ticular, his trials were by no means at an end. The 
little port of Palos was commanded by royal order to 
furnish the new Admiral with two small vessels 
known as caravels. This was soon done, but no sailors 
were willing to embark on such a voyage, the mad- 
dest in all history. Only by the most extreme meas- 
ures, by impressment and the release of criminals 
willing to accompany the expedition in order to get 

31 



A Guide to Biography 

out of jail, were crews finally provided. A third 
small vessel was secured, and on the morning of Fri- 
day, August 3, 1492, this tiny fleet of three boats, 
the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina, whose 
combined crews numbered less than ninety men, 
sailed out from Palos on the grandest voyage the 
world has ever known. 

The shore was lined with people weeping and 
wringing their hands for the relatives and friends 
whom they were sure they should never see again, 
and most of the sailors were certain that they were 
bidding farewell forever to their native land. Even 
at the present day, few men would care to undertake 
such a voyage in such ships. The two little caravels, 
Nina and Pinta, were decked only at stern and prow. 
The Santa Maria was but little larger, her length 
being only about sixty feet, and all three of the 
vessels were old, leaky, and in need of frequent re- 
pairs. 

The map which Toscanelli had given Columbus 
years before showed Japan lying directly west of the 
Canaries, so to the Canaries Columbus steered his 
fleet, and then set forth westward into the unknown. 
By a fortunate chance, it was the very best route 
he could have chosen, for he came at once into the 
region of the trade winds, which, blowing steadily 
from the east, drove the vessels westward day after 
day over a smooth sea. But this very thing, favor- 
able as it was, added greatly to the terror of the 
men. How were they to get back to Spain, w^ith the 
wind always against them? What was the meaning 

32 



The Beginners 

of a sea as smooth as their own Guadalquiver? They 
implored Columbus to turn back; but to turn back 
was the last thing in his thoughts. An opportune 
storm helped to reassure his men by proving that the 
wind did not always blow from the east and that the 
sea was not always calm. 

But there were soon other causes of alarm. The 
compass varied strangely, and what hope for them 
was there if this, their only guide, proved faithless? 
They ran into vast meadows of floating seaw^eed, the 
Sargasso Sea, and it seemed certain that the ships 
would soon be so entangled that they could move 
neither backward nor forward. Still Columbus 
pushed steadily on, and his men's terror and angry 
discontent deepened until they were on the verge of 
mutiny; various plots w^ere hatched and it was evident 
that affairs w^ould soon reach a crisis. 

One can guess the Admiral's thoughts as he paced 
the poop of his ship on that last night, pausing from 
time to time to strain his eyes into the darkness. 
Picture him to yourself — a tall and imposing figure, 
clad in that gray habit of the Franciscan missionary 
he liked to wear; the face stern and lined with care, 
the eyes gray and piercing, the high nose and long 
chin telling of a mighty will, the cheeks ruddy and 
freckled from life in the open, the white hair falling 
about his shoulders. Picture him standing there, 
a memorable figure, whose hour of triumph was at 
hand. He knew the desperate condition of things 
— none better; he knew that his men were for the 
most part criminals and cowards; at any moment 

33 



A Guide to Biographv 

they might rise and make him prisoner or throw him 
overboard. Well, until that moment, he would hold 
his ship^s prow to the west! For twenty years he 
had labored to get this chance; he would rather die 
than fail. 

And then, suddenly, far ahead, he saw a light 
moving low along the horizon. It disappeared, re- 
appeared, and then vanished altogether. The look- 
out had also seen it, and soon after, as the moon rose, 
a gun from the Pinta, which was in the lead, an- 
nounced that land had been sighted. It was soon 
plainly visible to everyone, a low beach gleaming 
white in the moonlight, and the ships hove-to until 
daybreak. 

In the early dawn of the twelfth day of October, 
1492, the boats were lowered, and Columbus and a 
large part of his company went ashore, wild with 
exultation. They found themselves on a small island, 
and Columbus named it San Salvador. It was one 
of the Bahamas, but which one is not certainly 
known. Columbus, of course, believed himself near 
the coast of Asia, and spent two months in search- 
ing for Japan, discovering a number of islands, but 
no trace of the land of gold and spices which he 
sought. One of his ships was wrecked and the cap- 
tain of the third sailed away to search for gold on 
his own account, so that it w^as in the little Nina 
alone that Columbus at last set sail for Spain. 

It was no longer a summer sea through which the 
tiny vessel ploughed her way, but a sea swept by 
savage hurricanes. More than once it seemed that 

34 





COLUMBUS 



The Beginners 

tlie ship must founder, but by some miracle it kept 
afloat, and on March 15, 1493, sailed again into the 
port of Palos. The great navigator was received 
Avith triumphal honors by Ferdinand and Isabella, 
and invited to sit in their presence while he told the 
wonderful story of his discoveries. 

Wonderful indeed! Yet what a dizziness would 
have seized that audience could they have guessed 
the truth! Could they have guessed that the proud 
kingdom of Spain was but an insignificant patch com- 
pared with the vast continent Columbus had dis- 
covered and upon which a score of nations were to 
dwell. 

The life-work of the great navigator practically 
ended on the day he told his story to the court of 
Spain, for, though he led three other expeditions 
across the ocean, the discoveries they made were of 
no great importance. Xot a trace did he find of that 
golden country, which he sought so eagerly, and at 
last, broken in health and fortune, in disfavor at 
court, stripped of the rewards and dignities which 
had been promised him, he died in a little house at 
Yalladolid on the tAventieth of May, 1506. He be- 
lieved to the last that it was the Indies he had dis- 
covered, never dreaming that he had given a new 
continent to the world. 

Yet is his fame secure, for the task which he ac- 
complished was unique, never to be repeated. He 
had robbed the Sea of Darkness of its terrors, and 
while those who followed him had need of courage 
and resolution, it was no longer into the unknown 

35 



A Guide to BiogTapliy 

that they sailed forth. They knew that there was 
no danger of sailing over the edge and dropping off 
into space; they knew that there were no dragons, nor 
monsters, nor other blood-curdling terrors to be en- 
countered, but that the other side of the world was 
much like the side they lived on. That was Co- 
lumbus's great achievement. To cross the Atlantic, 
perilous as the voyage was, was after all a little 
thing; but actually to start — to surmount the wall 
of bigotry and ignorance which, for centuries, had 
shut the west away from the east, to surmount that 
wall and throw it down by a faith which rose superior 
to human belief and incredulity and terror of the 
unknown — there was the miracle! 

Many there were to follow, each contributing his 
mite toward the task of defining the new continent. 
Perhaps you have seen a photographic negative 
slowly take shape in the acid bath — the sharp out- 
lines first, then, bit by bit, the detail. Just so did 
America grow beneath the gaze of Europe, though 
two centuries and more were to elapse before it stood 
out upon the map clean-cut and definite from border 
to border. 

First to follow Columbus, and the first white men 
since the vikings to set foot on the !N^orth American 
continent, which Columbus himself had never seen, 
were John and Sebastian Cabot, Italians like their 
predecessor, but in the service of the King of Eng- 
land and with an English ship and an English crew 
prophetic of the race which was, in tune, to wrest the 

36 



The Beginners 

supremacy of the continent from the other nations 
of Europe. They explored the coast from ISTew- 
foundland as far south, perhaps, as Chesapeake Bav, 
and upon their discoveries rested the English claim 
to Xorth America, though they themselves are little 
more than faint and ill-defined shadows upon the 
page of history, so little do we know of them. 

And just as the IN^ew AYorld was eventually to be 
dominated by a nation other than that which first 
took possession of it, so was it to be named after a 
man other than its discoverer: an inconsiderable ad- 
venturer named Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, 
who accompanied three or four Spanish expeditions 
as astronomer or pilot, but who had no part in any 
real discovery in the Xew World. He wrote a num- 
ber of letters describing the voyages which he claimed 
to have made, and one of these was printed in a 
pamphlet which had a wide circulation, so that 
Vespucci's name came to be connected in the public 
mind with the new land in the w^est much more prom- 
inently than that of any other man. In 1502, in 
a little book dealing with the new discoveries, the sug- 
gestion was made that there was nothing " rightly 
to hinder us from calling it [the l^ew World] 
Amerige or America, i. e., the land of Americus," 
and America it was thenceforward — one of the great 
injustices of history. Since it had to be so, let us 
be thankful that it was Vespucci's first name which 
was selected, and not his last one. 

Meanwhile, the Spaniards had pushed their way 
across the Caribbean and explored the shores of the 

37 



A Guide to Biography 

gulf, finding at last in Mexico a land of gold. World- 
worn, disease-racked Ponce de Leon, conqueror and 
governor of Porto Rico, struggled through the ever- 
glades of Florida, seeking the fountain of eternal 
youth, and getting his death-wound there instead. 
Ferdinand Magellan, man of iron if there ever was 
one, seeking a western passage to the Moluccas, 
skirted the coast of South America, wintered amid 
the snows of Patagonia, worked his way through the 
strait which bears his name, and held on westward 
across the Pacific, making the first circumnavigation 
of the globe, a feat so startling in audacity that there 
is none in our day to compare with it, except, per- 
haps, a journey to another planet. Magellan himself 
never again saw Europe, meeting his death in a fight 
with the natives of the Philippines, but one of his 
ships, with eighteen men, struggled south along the 
coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and 
so home. 

Half a century was to elapse before the feat was 
repeated — this time by that slave-trader, pirate, and 
doughty scourge of the Spaniard, Sir Francis Drake, 
who, following in Magellan's wake, and pausing only 
long enough to harry the Spanish settlements in Chili 
and Peru and capture a Spanish treasureship, held 
northward along the coast as far as southern Oregon, 
and then turned westward across the Pacific, around 
the Cape of Good Hope, and home again, where 
Elizabeth, in spite of Spanish protests, was waiting 
to reward him with a touch of sword to shoulder. 
The Muse of History smiles ironically when she re- 

38 



The Beffiuners 



ts' 



cords that Drake's principal discovery in the 'New 
World was that of the potato, which he introduced 
into England. 

Not until Drake's voyage was completed was the 
vast extent of the North American continent even 
suspected, although its interior had been explored in 
many directions. Hernando de Soto, with an ex- 
perience gained with Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, 
and succeeding Ponce de Leon in the governorship of 
Florida, marched with a great expedition through 
what is now South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, 
and came out, at last, upon the Mississippi, only to 
find burial beneath its waters, while the tattered 
remnant of his force staggered back to Mexico. 

Francisco de Coronado, marching northward from 
Mexico, in search of the fabled Seven Cities of 
Cibola, found only the squalid villages of the Zuni 
Indians, after stumbling on the Grand Canyon of 
the Colorado, and marching as far north as the south- 
ern line of Kansas. Jacques Cartier, following an- 
other will-o'-the-wisp to the north, and searching for 
the storied city of Norembega, supposed to exist 
somewhere in the wilderness south of Cape Breton, 
found it not, indeed, but laid the foundations for the 
great empire which France was to establish along the 
St. Lawrence. 

And Henry Hudson, in the little Half-Moon, 
chartered by a company of thrifty Dutchmen to search 
for the northwest passage, blundered instead upon 
the mighty river which bears his name, explored it as 
far north as the present city of Albany, and paved the 

39 



A Guide to Biography 

way for that picturesque Dutch settlement which 
grew into the greatest city of the ISTew World. He 
did more than that, for, persevering in the search and 
sailing far to the north, he came, at last, into the 
great bay also named for him, where tragic fate lay 
waiting. For there, in that icy fastness of the north, 
his mutinous crew bound him, set him adrift in a 
small boat, and sailed away and left him. 

So, by the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
the ]^ew World was fairly well defined upon the 
maps which the map-makers were always industri- 
ously drawing; and so were the spheres of influence 
where each nation was to be for a time paramount; 
the Spaniards in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch 
along the Hudson, the French on the St. Lawrence, 
and the English on the long coast to the south. But 
in all the leagues and leagues from the St. Lawrence 
to the Gulf, nowhere had the white man as yet suc- 
ceeded in gaining a permanent foothold. 

Although the continent of Xorth America had 
been discovered by John Cabot in 1497, nearly a 
century elapsed before England made any serious 
attempt to take possession of it. Cabot's voyages 
had created little imjoression, for he had returned 
from them empty-handed; instead of finding the 
passage to the Indies which he sought, he had dis- 
covered nothing but an inconvenient and apparent- 
ly worthless barrier stretching across the way, and 
for many years the great continent was regarded 
only in that light, and such explorations as were 

40 



The Besrinners 



to' 



made "were with the one object of getting through 
it or around it. In fact, as late as 1787, opin- 
ion in Europe was divided as to whether the dis- 
covery of the !N"ew World had been a blessing or a 
curse. 

But Spain had been working industriously. The 
honor of giving America to the world was hers, and 
she followed that first discovery by centuries of such 
pioneering as the world had never seen. Her ex- 
plorers overran Mexico and Peru, discovered the 
Mississippi, the Pacific, carved their way up into the 
interior of the continent, looked down upon the 
wonders of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, 
founded settlements up and down the land from 
Kansas to Chili — yes, and did more than that. They 
opened the first churches, set up the first presses, 
printed the first books, wrote the first histories, drew 
the first accurate maps. They established schools 
among the Indians, sent missionaries to them, trans- 
lated the Bible into twelve Indian dialects, made 
thousands of converts, and established an Indian 
policy as humane and enlightened — once Spanish su- 
premacy was recognized — as any in the world. The 
savages with whom Spain had to contend were the 
deadliest, the most cruel, that Europeans ever en- 
countered — ^no more resembling the warriors of King 
Philip and the Powhatan than a house-cat resembles 
a panther. They conquered them without extermina- 
tion, and converted them to Christianity! An amaz- 
ing feat, and one which disposes for all time of that 
old, outworn legend that the Spain of the fifteenth 

41 



A Guide to Biography 

and early sixteentti centuries was a moribund and 
degenerate nation. 

But a change was at hand. The world moved, 
and Spain, chained to an outworn superstition, did 
not move with it. The treasure she drew from Mex- 
ico and Peru she poured out to prop the tottering 
pillars of church despotism; and the end came when, 
in 1588, Elizabeth's doughty captains wiped out the 
" invincible " armada, and dethroned Spain for all 
time from her position as mistress of the seas. 

It was then that English eyes turned toward the 
'New AVorld and that projects of colonization were 
set afoot in earnest; and the one great dominant hero 
of that early movement was Sir Walter Baleigh. He 
had accompanied his half-brother, Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, on a voyage to the 'Ne^Y World ten years 
earher, and after Gilbert's tragic death, took over 
the patent for land in America which Gilbert held. 
It is worth noting that this patent provided in the 
plainest terms that such colonies as might be planted 
in America should be self-governing in the fullest 
sense — a provision also included in the patent 
granted to the company which afterwards succeeded 
in gaining and maintaining a foothold on the James. 

Baleigh spent nearly a million dollars in endeavor- 
ing to establish a colony on Roanoke Island — a 
colony which absolutely disappeared, and whose fate 
was never certainly discovered; and it was not until 
the Virgin Queen, after whom all that portion of the 
country had been named, was dead, and Raleigh him- 
self, shorn of his estates, was a prisoner in the Tower 

42 



The Beginners 

under charge of treason, that a new charter was 
given to an association of influential men known as 
the Virginia Company, which was destined to have 
permanent results. On 'New Year's Day, 1607, an 
expedition of three ships, carrying, besides their 
crews, one hundred and five colonists, started on the 
voyage across the ocean, under command of Captain 
Christopher IN'ewport. Among ^Newport's company 
was a scarred and weather-beaten soldier, who was 
soon to assume control of events through sheer fitness 
for the task, and who bore that commonest of all 
English names, John Smith. 

But John Smith's career had been anything but 
common. Born in Lincolnshire in 1579, and early 
left an orphan, he had gone to the E^etherlands while 
still in his teens, and had spent three years there fight- 
ing against the Spaniards. A year or two later, he 
had embarked with a company of Catholic pilgrims 
for the Levant, intent on fighting against the Turk, 
but a storm arose which all attributed to the presence 
of the Huguenot heretic on board, and he was forth- 
with flung into the sea. Whether the storm there- 
upon abated, history does not state, but Smith man- 
aged to swim to a small island, from which he was 
rescued next day. Journeying across Europe to 
Styria, he entered the service of Emperor Rudolph 
11. , and spent two or three years fighting against the 
Turks, accomplishing feats so surprising that one 
w^ould be inclined to class them with those of Baron 
Munchausen, were they not, for the most part, well 
authenticated. He was captured, at last, but man- 

43 



A Guide to Biography 

aged to escape, and made his way across the Styrian 
desert, through Russia, Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, 
and finally back to England, just in time to meet 
Captain I^ewport, and arrange to sail with him for 
Virginia. 

It is not remarkable that a man tried by such ex- 
periences should, from the first, have taken a promi- 
nent part in the enterprise. An unwelcome part in 
the beginning, for scarcely had the voyage begun, 
when he was accused of plotting mutiny, arrested 
and kept in irons until the ships reached Virginia. 
Late in April, the fleet entered Hampton Roads, and 
proceeding up the river, which was forthwith named 
the James, came at last on May 13th, to a low pen- 
insula which seemed suited for a settlement. The 
next day they set to work building a fort, which 
they called Fort James, but the settlement soon came 
to be known as Jamestown. 

Once the fort was finished, Captain ^Newport sailed 
back to England for supplies, and the little settle- 
ment was soon in desperate straits for food. With- 
in three months, half of the colonists were in their 
graves, and bitter feuds arose among the survivors. 
These were for the most part " gentlemen adventur- 
ers," who had accompanied the expedition in the hope 
of finding gold, and who were wholly unfitted to 
cope with the conditions in which they found them- 
selves. Of all of them, Smith was by far the most 
competent, and he did valiant service in trading with 
the Indians for corn and in conducting a number of 
expeditions in search of game. 

44 



The Beginners 

It was while on one of these, in December, 1607, 
that that incident of his career occurred which is all 
that a great many people know of Captain John 
Smith. With two companions, he was paddling in a 
canoe up the Chickahominy, when the party was at- 
tacked by Indians. Smith's two companions were 
killed, and he himself saved his life only by exhibit- 
ing his compass and doing other things to astonish 
and impress the savages. 

He was finally taken captive to the Powhatan, 
the ruler of the tribe, and, according to Smith's 
story, a long debate ensued among the Indians as to 
his fate. Presently two large stones were laid before 
the chief, and Smith was dragged to them and his 
head forced down upon them, but even as one of the 
warriors raised his club to dash out the captive's 
brains, the Powhatan's daughter, a child of thirteen 
named Pocahontas, threw herself upon him, shield- 
ing his head with hers, and claimed him for her own, 
after the Indian custom. Smith was thereupon re- 
leased, adopted into the tribe, and sent back to James- 
town, where he arrived on the eighth of January, 
1608. 

From the Indian standpoint, there was nothing 
especially unusual about this procedure, for any 
member of the tribe was privileged to claim a captive, 
if he wished. A century before, Ortiz, a member of 
De Soto's expedition, had been captured by the In- 
dians and saved in precisely the same way, and many 
instances of the kind occurred in the years which fol- 
lowed. But to the captive, it partook of the very 

45 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

essence of romance; lie had only the dimmest idea of 
what was really happening, and his account of it, 
written many years later, was of the most senti- 
mental kind. Many doubts have been cast on the 
story, and historians seem hopelessly divided about 
it, as they are about many other incidents of Smith's 
life. Certain it is, however, that Pocahontas after- 
wards befriended the colony on more than one oc- 
casion; and was finally converted, married to a 
planter named John Rolfe, and taken to England, 
where, among the artificialities of court life, she soon 
sickened and died. 

On the very day that Smith reached Jamestown 
with his Indian escort, the supply ship sent out by 
Captain [N^ewport also arrived, bringing 120 new 
colonists. Of the original 105, only thirty-eight were 
left alive. But Smith's enemies were yet in the as- 
cendancy, and he spent the summer of 1608 in ex- 
ploration, leaving the colony to its own devices. 
When he returned to it in September, he found it 
reduced and disheartened. His brave and cheery 
presence acted as a tonic, and at last the colonists, 
appreciating him at his true value, elected him presi- 
dent. He put new life into everyone, and when, soon 
afterwards, IN^ewport arrived again from England 
with fresh supplies, he found the colony in fairly 
good shape. 

But the members of the Virginia Company were 
growing impatient at the failure of the venture to 
bring any returns, and they sent out instructions by 
^Newport demanding that either a lump of gold be 

46 



The Beginners 

sent back to England or that the way to the South 
Sea be discovered. Smith said plainly that the in- 
structions were ridiculous, and wrote an answer to 
them in blunt soldier English. Then, turning his 
hand in earnest to the government of the disorderly 
rabble under him, he instituted an iron discipline, 
whipped the laggards into line, and by the end of 
April had some twenty houses built, thirty or forty 
acres of ground broken up and planted, nets and 
weirs arranged for fishing, a new fortress under way, 
and various small manufactures begun. A great 
handicap was the system by which all property was 
held in common, so that the drones shared equally 
with the workers, but Smith took care that there 
should be few drones. There can be no doubt that 
his sheer will power kept the colony together, but his 
credit with the company was undermined by enemies 
in England, nor did his own blunt letter help mat- 
ters. The company was re-organized on a larger 
scale, a new governor appointed, new colonists started 
on the way; and, finally, in 1609, Smith was so seri- 
ously wounded by the explosion of a bag of gun- 
powder, that he gave up the struggle and returned to 
England. 

Instant disaster followed. "When he left the col- 
ony, it numbered five hundred souls; when the next 
supply ship reached it in May, 1610, it consisted of 
sixty scarecrows, mere wrecks of human beings. The 
rest had starved to death — or been eaten by their 
companions ! There was a hasty consultation, and 
it was decided that Virginia must be abandoned. 

47 



A Guide to Biography 

On Thursday, June 7, 1610, the cabins were 
stripped of such things as were of value, and the 
whole company went on shipboard and started 
down the river — only to meet, next day, in Hamp- 
ton Roads, a new expedition headed by the new 
governor. Lord Delaware, himself! By this slight 
thread of coincidence was the fate of Virginia de- 
termined. 

The ship put about at once, and on the following 
Sunday morning. Lord Delaware stepped ashore at 
Jamestown, and, falling to his knees, thanked God 
that he had been in time to save Virginia. He pro- 
ceeded at once to place the colony upon a new and 
sounder basis, and it was never again in danger of 
extinction, though Jamestown itself was finally aban- 
doned as unsuited to a settlement on account of its 
malarious atmosphere. But Virginia itself grew 
apace into one of the greatest of England's colonies 
in America. 

John Smith himself never returned to Virginia. 
In 1614, he explored the coast south of the Pen- 
obscot, giving it the name it still bears, 'New Eng- 
land. A year later, while on another expedition, he 
was captured by the French and forced to serve 
against the Spaniards. Broken in health and fortune, 
he spent his remaining years in London, dying there 
in 1631. There is a portrait of him, showing him as 
a handsome, bearded man, with nose and mouth be- 
speaking will and spirit — just such a man as one 
would imagine this gallant soldier of fortune to have 
been. 

48 



The Beginners 

While the English, under the guiding hand of John 
Smith, were fighting desperately to maintain them- 
selves upon the James, the French were struggling to 
the same purpose and no less desperately along the 
St. Lawrence. We have seen how Jacques Cartier 
explored and named that region, but civil and reli- 
gious wars in France put an end to plans of coloniza- 
tion for half a century, and it was not until 1603 
that Samuel Champlain, the founder of ISTew France, 
and one of the noblest characters in American his- 
tory, embarked for the 'New World. 

Samuel Champlain was born at Brouage about 
1567, tlie son of a sea-faring father, and his early 
years were spent upon the sea. He served in the 
army of the Fourth Henry, and after the peace with 
Spain, made a voyage to Mexico. Upon his return 
to France in 1603, he found a fleet preparing to sail 
to Canada, and at once joined it. Some explora- 
tions were made of the St. Lawrence, but the fleet 
returned to France within the year, mthout accom- 
plishing anything in the way of colonization. Another 
expedition in the following year saw the founding 
of Port Boyal, while Champlain made a careful ex- 
ploration of the ^ew England coast, but he found 
nothing that attracted him as did the mighty river 
to the north. Thither, in 1608, he went, and sailing 
up the river to a point where a mighty promontory 
rears its head, disembarked and erected the first rude 
huts of the city which he called by the Indian name 
of Quebec, or " The Narrows." A wooden wall was 
built, mounting a few small cannon and loopholed for 

49 



A Guide to Biography 

musketry, and the conquest of Canada had begun. 
A magnificent cargo of furs was dispatched to 
France, and Chaniplain and twenty-eight men were 
left to winter at Quebec. When spring came, only 
nine were left alive, but reinforcements and supplies 
soon arrived, and Champlain arranged to proceed 
into the interior and explore the country. 

The resources at his disposal were small, he could 
not hope to assemble a great expedition; so he de- 
termined to make the venture with only a few men 
and little baggage, relying upon the friendship of the 
Indians, instead of seeking to conquer them, as the 
Spaniards had alwaj^s done. Champlain had from 
the first treated the Indians well, and it was this 
necessity of gaining their friendship that determined 
the policy which France pursued — the policy of mak- 
ing friends of the Indians, entering into an alliance 
with them, and helping them fight their battles. 
Champlain opened operations by joining an Algon- 
quin war-party against the Iroquois, and assisting at 
their defeat — starting, at the same time, a blood feud 
with that powerful tribe which endured as long as 
the French held Canada. In the course of this ex- 
pedition, he discovered the beautiful lake which bears 
his name. 

He went back to France for a time, after that, and 
on his next return to Canada, in 1611, began build- 
ing a town at the foot of a rock which had been 
named Mont Royal, since corrupted to Montreal. 
Succeeding years were spent in further explorations, 
which carried him across Lake Ontario, and in plans 

50 



The Beginners 

for the conversion of the Indians, to which the aid of 
the Jesuits was summoned. Missions were established, 
and the intrepid priests pushed their way farther and 
farther into the wilderness. To this work, Champ- 
lain gave more and more of his thought in the last 
years of his life, which ended on Christmas day, 1635. 

Among the young men whom Champlain set to 
work among the Indians w^as Jean ^icolet. The 
year before his death, Champlain sent him on an 
exploring expedition to the west, in the course of 
which he visited Lake Michigan and perhaps Lake 
Superior. Following in his footsteps, the Jesuits 
gradually established missions as far west as the Wis- 
consin River, and, finally, in 1670, at Sault Ste. 
Marie, the French formally took possession of the 
whole Northwest. 

It was at about this time there appeared upon the 
scene another of those picturesque and formidable 
figures, in which this period of American history so 
abounds — Robert Cavalier La Salle. La Salle was at 
that time only twenty years of age. He had reached 
Canada four years earlier and had devoted himself 
for three years to the study of the Indian languages, 
in order to fit himself for the career of western ex- 
ploration which he contemplated. One day he w^as 
visited by a party of Senecas, who told him of a 
river, which they called the Ohio, so great that many 
months were required to traverse it. From their 
description, La Salle concluded that it must fall into 
the Gulf of California, and so form the long-sought 
passage to China. He determined to explore it, and 

51 



A Guide to Biography 

after surmounting innumerable obstacles, actually 
did reach it, and descend it as far as the spot where 
the city of Louisville now stands, afterwards explor- 
ing the Illinois and the country south of the Great 
Lakes, as well as the lakes themselves. 

Fired by La Salle's report of his discoveries, two 
other Frenchmen, Louis Joliet, a native of Quebec, 
who had already led an expedition in search of the 
copper mines of Lake Superior, and Jacques Mar- 
quette, a Jesuit priest and accomplished linguist, 
started on a still greater journey. With five com- 
panions and two birchbark canoes, they headed down 
the Wisconsin river, and on June 17, 1673, glided 
out upon the blue waters of the Mississippi. A fort- 
night later, they reached a little village called Peoria, 
where the Indians received them well, and continu- 
ing down the river, passed the Missouri, the Ohio, 
and finally, having gone far enough to convince them- 
selves that the river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico 
and not into the Gulf of California, they turned 
about and reached Green Bay again in September, 
having paddled more than 2,500 miles. Marquette, 
shattered in health, remained at Green Bay, while 
Joliet pushed on to Montreal to tell of his discoveries. 
Marquette rallied sufficiently at the end of a year to 
attempt a mission among the Illinois Indians, where 
death found him in the spring of 1675. Joliet spent 
his last years in a vain endeavor to jDersuade the 
government of France to undertake on a grand scale 
the development of the rich lands along the Missis- 
sippi. 

52 



The Beginners 

But tlie story wliich Joliet took back with him to 
Quebec fired anew the ambition of La Salle. He 
conceived ISTew France as a great empire in the wil- 
derness, and he determined to descend the mighty 
river to its mouth and establish a city there which 
would hold the river for France against all comers. 
Such occupation would, according to French doctrine, 
give France an indisputable right to the whole terri- 
tory which the river and its tributaries drained, and 
La Salle's plan was to establish a chain of forts 
stretching from Lake Erie to the Gulf, to build up 
around these great cities, and so to lay the founda- 
tions for the mightiest empire in history. We may 
well stand amazed before a plan so ambitious, and 
before the determination with which this great 
Frenchman set about its accomplishment. 

To most men, such a scheme seemed but the dream 
of an enthusiast; but La Salle was in deadly earnest, 
and for eight years he labored to perfect the details 
of the plan. At last, on April 9, 1682, he planted the 
flag of France at the mouth of the Mississippi, nam- 
ing the country Louisiana in honor of his royal mas- 
ter, whose property it was solemnly declared to be. 
That done, the intrepid explorer hastened back to 
France; a fleet was fitted out and attempted to sail 
directly to the mouth of the great river, but missed 
it; the ships were wrecked on the coast of Texas, and 
La Salle was shot from ambush by two of his own 
followers while searching on foot for the river. 

So ended La Salle's part in the accomplishment of 
a plan which, grandiose as it was, reached a sort of 

5a 



A Guide to Biography 

realization — for a great French city near the mouth 
of the river was built and a thin chain of forts con- 
necting it with Canada, where the French power 
remained unbroken for three quarters of a century 
longer; wdiile not until the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century, when the royal line of Louis had 
been succeeded by a soldier of fortune from Corsica, 
did the great territory which La Salle had named 
Louisiana pass from French possession. 

On the nineteenth day of November, 1620, four- 
teen years after the settlement of Jamestown and 
twelve after the settlement of Quebec, a storm-beaten 
vessel of 120 tons burthen crept into the lee of Cape 
Cod and dropped anchor in that welcome refuge. 
The vessel was the Mayflower, and she had just com- 
pleted the most famous voyage in American history, 
after that of Columbus. The colonists she carried, 
about a hundred in number. Separatists from the 
Church of England, have come down through history 
as the " Pilgrim Fathers." Among them was one 
destined to rule the fortunes of the colony for more 
than a quarter of a century. His name was William 
Bradford, and he was at that time thirty years of age. 

Bradford was born in 1590 at Austerfield, in 
Yorkshire, England, and at the age of sixteen, joined 
a company of Puritans or Separatists, which met for 
a time at the little town of Scrooby, but, being threat- 
ened with persecution, resolved to remove to Hol- 
land. Most of the congregation got away without 
interference, but Bradford and a few others were 

54 



The Beginners 

arrested and spent several months in prison. As 
soon as he was released, he joined the colony in Am- 
sterdam, and afterwards, in 1609, removed wdth it 
to Lejden. But the newcomers found themselves 
out of sympathy with Dutch customs and habits of 
thought, and after long debate, determined to remove 
to America and found a colony of their own. A 
patent was obtained, the Mayflower chartered, the 
congregation put aboard, and the voyage begun on 
the fifth day of September, 1620. 

The colonists expected to settle somewhere near 
the mouth of the Hudson, but, whether by accident 
or design, their captain brought up off Cape Cod, and 
it was decided to land there. After some days' 
search, a suitable site for a settlement was found, 
work was begun on houses and fortifications, and the 
place was named Kew Plymouth. 

Jonathan Carver had been chosen the first gov- 
ernor and guided the colony through the horrors of 
that first winter; the story of Jamestown was re- 
peated, and by the coming of spring, more than half 
the colonists were dead. Among them was Carver 
himself, and WilHam Bradford was at once chosen 
to succeed him. There can be no doubt that it was 
to Bradford's wise head and strong hand the colony 
owed its quick rally, and its escape from the pro- 
longed misery which makes horrible the early his- 
tory of Virginia. He seems to have possessed a 
temper resolute, but magnanimous and patient to an 
unusual degree, together with a religion sincere and 
devoted, yet neither intolerant nor austere. What 

55 



A Guide to Biography 

results can be accomplislied by a combination of 
qualities at once so rare and so admirable is shown 
by the work which William Bradford did at Plym- 
outh, over which he ruled almost continuously un- 
til his death, thirty-seven years later. 

Bradford's success lay first in his courage in doing 
away with the pernicious system by which all the 
property was held in common. In doing this, he 
violated the rules of his company, but he saw that 
utter failure lay the other way. He divided the 
colony's land among the several families, in propor- 
tion to their number, and compelled each family to 
shift for itself. The communal system had nearly 
wrecked Jamestown and would have wrecked Plym- 
outh had not Bradford had the courage to disregard 
all precedent and make each family its own provider. 
Years afterwards, in commenting on the results of 
this revolutionary change, he wrote, " Any general 
want or suffering hath not been among them since 
to this day." 

And, indeed, this was true. Under Bradford's 
guidance, the little colony increased steadily in 
wealth and numbers, and became the sure forerunner 
of the great Puritan migration of 1630, which 
founded the colony of Massachusetts, into which the 
older colony of Plymouth Avas finally absorbed. Of 
Bradford himself, little more remains to be told. 
The estabhshment of Plymouth Plantation was his 
life work. He was a far bigger man than most 
of his contemporaries, with a broader outlook upon 
life and deeper resources within himself. One of 

56 



The Beginners 

these was a literary culture which fairly sets him 
apart as the first American man of letters. He wrote 
an entertaining history of his colony, as well as a 
number of philosophical and theological works, all 
marked with a style and finish noteworthy for their 
day. 

The government of the colony of Massachusetts 
presented, for over half a century, the most perfect 
union of church and state ever witnessed in America. 
The secular arm was ever ready to support the reli- 
gious, and to compel every resident of the colony to 
walk in the strait and narrow way of Puritanism. 
This was a task easy enough at first, but growing 
more and more difficult as the character of the settlers 
became more diverse, until, finally, it had to be 
abandoned altogether. 

One of the first and most formidable of all those 
who dared array themselves against this bulwark of 
Puritanism was Roger Williams. He was the son of 
a merchant tailor of London, had developed into a 
precocious boy, had shown a leaning toward Puritan 
doctrines, and had ended by out-Puritaning the Puri- 
tans. This was principally apparent in an intolerance 
of compromise which led him to remarkable ex- 
tremes. He refused to conform to the use of the 
common jorayer, and so cut himself off from all 
chance of preferment; he renounced a property of 
some thousands of pounds rather than take the oath 
required by law; and at last was forced to flee the 
country, reaching Massachusetts in 1631. 

67 



A Guide to Biography 

He was, of course, soon at war with the constituted 
authorities over questions of doctrine, and at last it 
was decided to get rid of him by sending him back 
to England. He was at Salem at the time, and hear- 
ing that a warrant had been despatched from Bos- 
ton for him, he promptly took to the woods, and, 
making his way with a few followers to Narragansett 
Bay, broke ground for a settlement which he named 
Providence. It was the beginning of the first state 
in the world which took no cognizance whatever of 
religious belief, so long as it did not interfere with 
civil peace. He was soon joined by more adherents, 
and a few years later, he obtained from the king a 
charter for the colony of Rhode Island. 

Almost from the moment of his landing in Amer- 
ica, Williams had interested himself greatly in the 
welfare of the Indians. The principal cause of his 
expulsion from Massachusetts was his contention that 
the land belonged to the Indians and not to the King 
of England, who therefore had no right to give it 
away, so that the colony's charter was invalid. His 
town of Providence was built on land which the In- 
dians had given him, and he soon acquired consider- 
able influence among them. He learned to speak 
their language with great facility, translated the 
Bible into their tongue, and on more than one oc- 
casion saved !New England from the horrors of an 
Indian war. But, despite his lofty character, it is 
impossible at this day, to regard Williams with any 
degree of sympathy or liking, or to think of him 
except as a trouble-maker over trifles. Intolerance, 

58 



The Beginners 

happily, is fading from the world, and with it that 
useless scrupulosity of behavior, which accomplishes 
no good, but whose principal result is to make un- 
comfortable all who come in contact with it. 

Meanwhile, just to the south of Rhode Island, a 
prosperous little settlement had been established, 
which was soon to grow into the most commercially 
important on the continent. We have seen how 
Henry Hudson, in 1609, in a vessel chartered by the 
Dutch West India Company, entered the Hudson 
river and explored it for some hundred and fifty 
miles. The Dutch claimed the region as the result of 
that voyage, and during the next few years, Dutch 
traders visited it regularly and did a lively business 
in furs; but no attempt was made at colonization 
until 1624, although small trading-posts had existed 
at various points along the river for ten years pre- 
viously. 

All of this country was included in the patent 
granted the Virginia Company, and it was for the 
mouth of the Hudson that the Pilgrims had sailed 
in the Mayflower. The charge has since been made 
that their captain had been bribed by the thrifty 
Dutch to land them somewhere else, and at any cost, 
to keep them away from the neighborhood of the 
Dutch trading-posts. From whatever cause, this was 
certainly done, and many years w^ere to elapse before 
there came another English invasion. 

In 1626, Peter Minuit, director for the Dutch 
West India Company, purchased Manhattan Island 

59 



A Guide to Biography 

from the Indians, giving for it trinkets and mer- 
chandise to the value of $24, and founding ISTew 
Amsterdam as the central trading depot. From the 
first, the settlement was a cosmopolitan one, just as 
it is to-day, and in 1643, it was said that eighteen 
languages were spoken there. 

The most notable figure in this prosperous and 
growing colony was that of Peter Stuyvesant, an 
altogether picturesque and gallant personality. Born 
in Holland in 1602, he had entered the army at an 
early age, and, as governor of Curasao, lost a leg 
in battle. In 1646, he was appointed director-gen- 
eral of New E'etherlands, and reached New Amster- 
dam in the spring of the following year. So much 
powder was burned in firing salutes to welcome him 
that there was scarcely any left. His speech of 
greeting was brief and to the point. 

" I shall govern you,'^ he said, " as a father his 
children, for the advantage of the chartered West 
India Company, and these burghers, and this land." 

And he proceeded to do it, having in mind the old 
adage that to spare the rod is to spoil the child. 
There was never any doubt in Stuyvesant's mind 
that the first business of a ruler is to rule, and 
popular government seemed to him the merest idiocy. 
" A valiant, weather-beaten, mettlesome, obstinate, 
leathern-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited old 
governor" — the adjectives describe him well; a suf- 
ficiently imposing figure, with his slashed hose and 
velvet jacket and tall cane and silver-banded wooden 
leg, he ruled the colony for twenty years with a rod 

60 



The Beoinners 



&^ 



of iron, fortifying it, enlarging it, settling its boun- 
daries, keeping the Indians over-awed, the veriest 
dictator this continent ever saw, until, one August 
day in 1664, an English fleet sailed up the bay and 
summoned the city to surrender. 

Stuyvesant set his men to work repairing the for- 
tifications, and was for holding out, but the town 
was really defenseless against the frigates, which had 
only to sail up the river and bombard it from either 
side; his people were disaffected and to some extent 
not sorry to be delivered from his rule; the terms 
offered by the English were favorable, and though 
Stuyvesant swore he never would surrender, a white 
flag was finally run up over the ramparts of Eort 
Amsterdam. The city was at once renamed New 
York, in honor of the Duke of York, to whom it 
had been granted; and the hard-headed old governor 
spent the remaining years of his life very com- 
fortably on his great farm, the Bouwerie, just outside 
the city limits. 

This conquest, bloodless and easy as it was, was 
fraught with momentous consequences. It brought 
'New England into closer relations with Maryland 
and Virginia by creating a link between them, bind- 
ing them together; it gave England command of the 
spot designed by nature to be the commercial and 
military centre of the Atlantic sea-board, and con- 
firmed a possession of it that was never thereafter 
seriously disturbed, until the colonies themselves dis- 
puted it. Had New Amsterdam remained Dutch, 
dividing, as it did, E'ew England from the South, 

61 



A Guide to Biography 

there would never have been any question of revolu- 
tion or independence. The flash of that little white 
flag on that September day, decided the fate of the 
continent. 

The Duke of York, being of a generous disposition 
and having many claims upon him, used a portion of 
the great territory granted him in America to re- 
ward his friends, and thereby laid the foundation 
for another great commonwealth with a unique his- 
tory, ^ew Jersey was given jointly to Sir George 
Carteret and Lord Berkeley, and in 1673, Lord Ber- 
keley sold his share, illy-defined as the " southwestern 
part," to a Quaker named Edward Byllinge. Byl- 
linge soon became insolvent, and his property was 
taken over by William Penn and two others, as 
trustees, and the seeds sown for one of the most in- 
teresting experiments in history. 

There are few figures on the page of history more 
admirable, self-poised, and clear-sighted than this 
quiet man. He was born in London in 1644, the 
son of a distinguished father, and apparently destined 
for the usual career at the court of England. But 
while at Oxford, young Penn astonished everybody 
and scandalized his relatives by joining the Society 
of Friends, or Quakers, founded by George Fox only 
a short time before. His family at once removed 
him from Oxford and sent him to Paris, in the hope 
that amid the gayeties of the French capital he would 
forget his Quaker notions, but he was far from doing 
so. He returned home after a time, and his father 

62 



The Beginners 

threatened to shut him up in the Tower of London, 
but he retorted that for him the Tower was the worst 
argument in the world. We get some amusing 
glimpses of the contention in his household. 

" You may ^ thee ' and ' thou ' other folk as much 
as you like," his angry father told him, " but don't 
you dare to ^ thee ' and ^ thou ' the King, or the Duke 
of York, or me." 

The Quakers insisted upon the use of " thee " and 
" thou," alleging that the use of the plural " you " 
was not only absurd, but a form of flattery, and this 
manner of address has been persisted in by them to 
this day. Penn, of course, continued to use them, 
much to his father's indignation, and even went so 
far as to wear his hat in the king's presence, an 
act of audacity which only amused that merry mon- 
arch. The story goes that the king, seeing young 
Penn covered, removed his own hat, remarking jest- 
ingly, " Wherever I am, it is customary for only one 
to be covered " ; a neat reproof, as well as a lesson in 
manners which would have made any other young 
man's ears tingle, but Penn calmly enough replied, 
"' Keep thy hat on. Friend Charles." 

After his father's death, in 1670, Penn found him- 
self heir to a great estate, and began to devote him- 
self entirely to the defense and explanation of Quak- 
erism. Again and again, he was thrown into prison 
and kept there for months on end, but gradually he 
began to win for the Friends a certain degree of re- 
spect and consideration, perhaps as much because of 
his high social station, gallant bearing and magnetic 

63 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

personality, as because of any of his arguments. In 
1677, lie made a sort of missionary tour of Europe, 
returning to England to set actively afloat tlie project 
for Quaker colonization in America which he had 
long been turning over in his mind. 

Three years, however, passed before he could se- 
cure from the Duke of York a release of all his 
powers of sovereignty over West Jersey, but this 
was finally accomplished, and soon afterwards he 
secured from the crown a charter for a great strip of 
country in that region. Penn named this region 
" Sylvania,'^ or " Woodland," but when the King 
came to approve the charter, he wrote the name 
" Penn " before " Sylvania," and when Penn pro- 
tested, assured him laughingly that the name was 
given the country not in his honor but in that of his 
father, and so it stood. 

Penn had been allowed a free hand in shaping 
the policy of his colony, and forthwith proclaimed 
such a government as existed nowhere else on earth. 
Absolute freedom of conscience was guaranteed to 
everyone; it was declared that governments exist for 
the sake of the governed, that to reform a criminal 
is more important than to punish him, that the death 
penalty should be inflicted only for murder or high 
treason, and that every man had a right to vote and 
to hold office. All of which are such matters of 
course to-day that we can scarcely realize how revolu- 
tionary they were two centuries ago. 

To all who should come to his colony, Penn offered 
land at the rate of forty shillings for a hundred acres, 

64 



The Beginners 

and the experiment, denounced at first as visionary 
and certain of failure, was so successful that within 
a year, more than three thousand persons had sailed 
to settle along the Delaware. In the summer of 
1682, Penn himself sailed for the ISTew World, and 
late in the following autumn, at a spot just above the 
junction of the Schuylkill and Delaware, laid out 
a city as square and level as a checker-board, and 
named it Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. 
Before taking possession of the land, he concluded 
a treaty with the Delaware Indians, to whom it be- 
longed, " the only treaty," as Voltaire says, " between 
savages and Christians that was never sworn to and 
never broken." Penn's stately and distinguished 
bearing, his affability and kindness of heart, made a 
deep impression upon the Indians; they always re- 
membered him with trust and affection; and seventy 
years elapsed before Pennsylvania tasted the horrors 
of Indian warfare. 

The growth of the new city was phenomenal. Set- 
tlers came so fast that cabins could not be built for 
them, and many of them lived for a time in caves 
along the river. The remainder of Penn's life was 
spent for the most part in England, where his in- 
terests demanded his presence, but he built a hand- 
some residence in the city which he had founded and 
lived there at intervals until his death. 

E^o consideration, however brief, of his life and 
work can be complete without some reference to the 
remarkable effect the establishment of his colony had 
on emigration to America. Pennsylvania gave a ref- 

65 



A Guide to Biography 

"uge and home to the most intelligent and progressive 
peoples of Europe, chafing under the religious restric- 
tions which, at home, they could not escape. The 
Mennonites, the Dunkers, and the Palatines were 
among these, but by far the most important were the 
so-called Scotch-Irish — Scotchmen who, a century 
before, had been sent to Ireland by the English gov- 
ernment, in the hope of establishing there a Protes- 
tant population which would, in time, come to out- 
number and control the native Irish. The Scotch 
were Presbyterians, of course, and finding the Irish 
environment distasteful, began, about 1720, to come 
to America in such numbers that, fifty years later, 
they formed a sixth part of our entire population. 
ISTearly all of them settled in Western Pennsylvania, 
from which a steady stream flowed ever southward 
and westward, furnishing the hardy pioneers of 
Kentucky and Tennessee, and forming the main 
strength of American democracy. We shall see, in 
the chapters which follow, how many of the men 
eminent in the country's history, traced their descent 
from this stock. 

One more interesting experiment in colonization, 
conceived and carried out by a man of imusual per- 
sonality, remains to be recorded. James Oglethorpe, 
born in 1689, for forty years led the usual life of 
the wealthy English gentleman — first the army, then 
a period of quiet country life, and finally parliament. 
There, however, he took a place apart, almost at once, 
by his interest in prison reform. The condition of 



The Beginners 

the English prisons of the day was indescribably 
foul and loathsome, and as horror after horror was 
unearthed by his investigations, a great project be- 
gan to take shape in his mind. This was nothing less 
than the founding in America of a colony where 
prisoners for debt should be encouraged to settle, and 
where they should be given means to make a new 
start in life. For in those days, a man who could 
not pay his debts was cast into prison and kept there, 
frequently in the greatest misery, as though that 
helped matters any. 

In 1Y32, Oglethorpe succeeded in securing a 
charter for such a colony, which he named Georgia, 
in honor of the King. Trustees were appointed, the 
support of influential men secured, and on November 
16, 1732, the first shipload of emigrants left Eng- 
land. Oglethorpe himself accompanied them. He 
had undertaken to establish the colony on the condi- 
tion that he receive no recompense, and was author- 
ized to act as colonial governor. 

Charleston, South Carolina, was reached about the 
middle of January, and, after some exploration, 
Oglethorpe selected as the site of the first settlement 
a bluif on the rich delta lands of the Savannah. 
Thither the emigrants proceeded, and at once began 
to build the town, which was named Savannah after 
the river flowing at its feet. Oglethorpe himself was 
indefatigable. He concluded a treaty with the In- 
dians, provided for the defense of the colony against 
the Spaniards, who held Florida, and, most important 
of all, welcomed a colony of Jews, who had come 

67 



A Guide to Biography 

from London at tlieir own expense, and who soon 
became as valuable as any of Savannah^s citizens. 
Probably never before in history had a Christian 
community welcomed a party of this unfortunate 
race, which had been despised and persecuted from 
one end of Europe to the other, which could call no 
country home, nor invoke the protection of any gov- 
ernment. 

A year later, another strange band of pilgrims was 
welcomed — Protestants driven out of the Tyrolese 
valleys of Austria. A ship had been sent for them, 
and Oglethorpe gave them permission to select l 
home in any part of the province, and sent his car- 
penters to assist them in building their houses. 
Georgia owes much of her greatness to these sturdy 
people, whose love of independence was to find an- 
other vent in the Revolution. 

As soon as these new arrivals were comfortably 
settled and provided for, Oglethorpe proceeded to 
London, where he secured the passage of laws prohib- 
iting slavery and the importation of liquor into the 
colony, and not until his connection with it ended 
were slaves brought in. When he returned to Geor- 
gia, it was with two vessels, and over three hundred 
colonists — Scotchmen, Salzburgers and Moravians, 
the sturdiest people of the Old World. Oglethorpe 
welcomed them all, and it was this mixture of races 
which served to give Georgia her curious cosmopol- 
itan population. Another important arrival was 
Charles Wesley, w^ho came out as a missionary, and 
who acted for a time as the Governor's secretary. 

68 



The Beginners 

He was succeeded by the famous George Whitfield, 
who labored there until his death in 1770. 

Oglethorpe's public career ended in 1754, when, 
having returned to England, he failed of election to 
parHament. His remaining years were spent in re- 
tirement. That he was an extraordinary man can- 
not be gainsaid, and the plan, so far in advance of 
his age, which he conceived and carried through to 
success, forms one of the most interesting experi- 
ments in colonization ever attempted anywhere. 

This, then, is the story in briefest outline of the 
men who discovered America and who fought for a 
foothold on her borders. Most of them, it will be 
noted, undertook the struggle not for commercial ends 
nor from the love of adventure, but in order to es- 
tablish for themselves a home where they would be 
free in matters of the spirit. The traces of that pur- 
pose may be found on almost every page of Amer- 
ican history and do much to render it the inspiring 
thing it is. We shall see how many of the great men 
who loom large in these pages traced their descent 
from those hardy pioneers for whom no sacrifice 
seemed too great provided it secured for them 

" Freedom to worship God." 



SUMMAEY 

Columbus, Christopher. Born at Genoa, Italy, 
probably in 1116; removed to Portugal about 1173; 

69 



A Guide to Biography 

laid plan to reach the Indies before John II. of Portu- 
gal, 1481; appeared at court of Ferdinand and Isabella, 
1185; Spanish monarchs agreed to his demands, April 
17, 1492; sailed from Palos, August 3, 1492; discovered 
West Indies, October 12, 1492; returned to Palos, 
March 15, 1493; embarked on second voyage with 17 
vessels and 1,500 men, September 25, 1493; discovered 
Dominica, Porto Eico, Jamaica, and returned to Spain, 
March, 1496; started on third voyage. May 30, 1498; 
discovered Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco; re- 
called to Santo Domingo by disorders and finally ar- 
rested and sent back to Spain in chains, October, 1500 ; 
released and started on fourth voyage in March, 1502; 
discovered Honduras, but was wrecked on Jamaica, and 
reached Spain again after terrible sufferings, Novem- 
ber 7, 1504; passed his remaining days in poverty and 
died at Valladolid, May 20, 1506. 

Cabot, John. Born at Genoa, date unknown; be- 
came citizen of Venice, 1476; removed to Bristol, Eng- 
land, and in 1495 secured from Henry VII. a patent 
for the discovery, at his own expense, of unknown lands 
in the eastern, western, or northern seas; sailed from 
Bristol, May, 1497; discovered coast of Newfoundland 
and returned to England in August, 1497; date of 
death unknown. 

Cabot, Sebastian. Son of John Cabot, born prob- 
ably at Venice, 1477 ; accompanied his father's expedi- 
tion, 1497 ; commanded an English expedition in search 
of a northwest passage, 1517; removed to Spain and 
made grand pilot of Castile, 1518; sailed in command 
of a Spanish expedition, April 3, 1526; skirted coast 
of South America, discovered the Uruguay and Parana, 

70 



The Beginners 

and reached Spain again in 1530; returned to England, 
1516; died at London, 1557. 

Vespucci, Amerigo. Born at Florence, Italy, 
March 9, 1451; removed to Spain, 1495; claimed to 
have accompanied four expeditions as astronomer in 
1497, 1499, 1501 and 1503, during which some ex- 
plorations were made of the coasts of both North and 
South America; died at Seville, February 22, 1512. 

Ponce de Leon, Juan. Born in Aragon about 1460 ; 
accompanied the second voyage of Columbus, 1493; 
conquered Porto Rico and appointed governor, 1510; 
heard story from Indians of an island to the north 
named Bimini, on which was a fountain giving eternal 
youth to all who drank of its waters, and sailed in 
search of it, March, 1513; discovered the mainland and 
landed on April 8, Pascua Florida, or Easter Sunday, 
taking possession of the country for the King of Spain 
and calling it Florida, in honor of the day; returned to 
Porto Rico, September, 1513; sailed with a large num- 
ber of colonists to settle Florida, March, 1521 ; attacked 
by Indians and forced to retreat, he himself being 
wounded by an Indian arrow and dying from the effects 
of the wound a short time later. 

Magalhaes, Fernao de; generally known as Ferdi- 
nand Magellan. Born in Portugal about 1480; sailed 
from Spain to find a western passage to the Moluccas, 
September 20, 1519; reached the Brazilian coast, ex- 
plored Rio de la Plata, wintered on Patagonian coast, 
passed through Strait of Magellan and reached the Pa- 
cific, November 28, 1520; crossed the Pacific and dis- 
covered the Philippines, March 16, 1521; killed in a 
fight with the natives, April 27, 1521. 

71 



A Guide to BiograpLy 

Drake, Sir Francis. Born in Devonshire, England, 
about 154:0; fitted out a freebooting expedition and 
attacked the Spanish settlements in the West Indies, 
1572, capturing Porto Bello, Cartagena, and other 
towns and taking an immense treasure; sailed again 
from England, December, 1577, circumnavigating the 
globe and reaching home again September, 1580, where 
he was met by Queen Elizabeth and knighted on his 
ship; ravaged the West Indies and Spanish Main, 1585, 
and the coast of Spain, 1587; commanded a division 
of the fleet defeating the Spanish Armada, July, 1588 ; 
died off Porto Bello, 1596. 

Soto, Hernando de. Born in Spain, 1500; took 
prominent part in conquest of Peru, 1532-1536; ap- 
pointed governor of Porto Pico and Florida, 1537; 
landed at Tampa Bay, May 25, 1539; discovered the 
Mississippi, May, 15-11; died of malarial fever and 
buried in the Mississippi, June, 1542. 

Coronado, Francisco Vasquez de. Born at Sal- 
amanca about 1500; reached Mexico in 1539, and in 
1540, headed an expedition in search of Cibola and the 
Seven Cities supposed to have been founded seven cen- 
turies before by some Spanish bishops fleeing from the 
Moors; penetrated to what is now New Mexico and per- 
haps to Kansas, reaching Mexico again with only a rem- 
nant of his force; date of death unknown. 

Cartier, Jacques. Born at St. Malo, France, De- 
cember 31, 1494; made three voyages to Canada, 1534- 
1542; exploring the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and sailing 
up the St. Lawrence as far as Montreal; died after 
1552. 

Hudson, Henry. Date and place of birth unknown ; 
sailed in service of Dutch East India Company to find 

72 



The Beginners 

a northwest passage, March 25, 1609; sighted Nova 
Scotia and explored coast as far south as Chesapeake 
Bay; explored Hudson river, September, 1609; sailed 
again to find a northwest passage, 1610; entered Hud- 
son Bay and Hudson Strait, where he wintered; set 
adrift in open boat, with eight companions, by mu- 
tinous crew, June 23, 1611; never seen again. 

Smith, Captain John. Born in Lincolnshire, Eng- 
land, in January, 1579; served in Netherlands and 
against Turks, sailed for Virginia with Christopher 
Newport, December 19, 1606; chosen president of 
colony, September 10, 1608; returned to London in 
autumn of 1609; explored New England coast, 1614; 
created admiral of New England, 1617; spent remain- 
der of life in vain endeavor to secure financial support 
for a colony in New England; died at London, June 21, 
1632. 

Champlain, Samuel de. Born at Brouage, France, 
1567; explored Canada and New England, 1603-1607; 
founded Quebec, 1608; discovered Lake Champlain, 
1609; died at Quebec, December 25, 1635. 

NicoLET, Jean. Place and date of both birth and 
death unknown. 

La Salle^ Egbert Cavalier, Sieur de. Born at 
Eouen, November 22, 1643 ; came to Canada, 1666 ; 
set out on tour of western exploration, discovering Ohio 
river, 1669; descended the Mississippi to its mouth, 
1681 ; led a band of colonists from France, 1685 ; missed 
mouth of river, and murdered by his own men while 
seeking it, March 20, 1687. 

JoLiET, Louis. Born at Quebec, September 21, 1645 ; 
commissioned to explore Mississippi river, by Frontenac, 

73 



A Guide to Biography 

governor of Xew France, 1072; explored Fox, Wiscon- 
sin, Mississippi and Illinois rivers, 1G73; died May, 
1700. 

Marquette, Jacques. Born at Laon, France, 1637; 
accompanied Joliet in 1673; died near Lake Michigan, 
May 18, 1675. 

Bradford, William. Born at Austerfield, York- 
shire, England, 1590; governor of Plymouth colony, 
1621-1657 (except in 1633-1634, 1636, 1638, 1644) ; 
died at Plymouth, Massachusetts, May 9, 1657. 

Williams, Egger. Born in Wales about 1600; 
reached Massachusetts, 1631; pastor at Plymouth and 
Salem, 1631-1635; ordered to leave colony and fled 
from Salem, January, 1636; founded Providence, June, 
1636 ; went to England and obtained charter for Rhode 
Island colony, 1644; president of colony until death, 
April, 1684. 

Stuyvesant, Peter. Born in Holland, 1602; served 
in West Indies, for a time governor of Curagao, and re- 
turned to Holland in 1644; appointed director-general 
of New Netherlands, 1646; reached New Amsterdam, 
1647; surrendered colony to the English, September, 
1664; died at New York, August, 1682. 

Pexn, William. Born at London, October 14, 1644; 
became preacher of Friends, 1668; part proprietor of 
West Jersey, 1675; received grant of Pennsylvania, 
1681; founded Philadelphia, 1682; returned to Eng- 
land, 1684; deprived of government of colony on 
charge of treason, 1692, but restored to it in 1694; 
visited Pennsylvania, 1699-1701; died at Euscombe, 
Berks, England, July 30, 1718. 

74 



The Beginners 



b' 



Oglethorpe, James Edward. Bom at London, De- 
cember 21, 1696; projected colony of Georgia for in- 
solvent debtors and persecuted Protestants, and con- 
ducted expedition for its settlement, 1733; returned to 
England, 1743; died at Cranham Hall, Essex, England, 
1785. 



75 



CHAPTEE III 
WASHINGTON TO LINCOLN 

NEAR the left bank of the Potomac river, in the 
northwestern part of Westmoreland county, 
Virginia, there stood, in the year 1732, a little cabin 
where lived a planter by the name of Augustine 
"Washington. It was a lonely spot, for the nearest 
neighbor was miles away, but the little family, con- 
sisting of father, mother, and two boys, Lawrence 
and Augustine, were kept busy enough wresting a 
living from the soil. Here, on the twenty-second day 
of February, a third son was born, and in due time 
christened George. 

Just a century had elapsed since John Smith had 
died in London, but in that time the colony ^vhich he 
had founded and which had been more than once so 
near extinction, had grown to be the greatest in Am- 
erica. Half a million people were settled along her 
bays and rivers, engaged, for the most part, in the 
culture of tobacco, for wdiich the colony had long 
been famous and which was the basis of her wealth. 
Her boundaries were still indefinite, for though, by 
the king's charter, the colony was supposed to stretch 
clear across the continent to the Pacific, the country 

76 



WasLingtou to Lincoln 

bevond the Blue Ridge mountains was still a wil- 
derness where the Indian and the wild beast held un- 
disputed sway. Even in Virginia proper, there were 
few towns and no cities, WilHamsburg, the capital, 
having less than two hundred houses; but each 
planter lived on his own estate, very much after the 
fashion of the feudal lords of the Middle Ages, gen- 
erous, hospitable, and kind-hearted, fond of the crea- 
ture-comforts, proud of his women and of his horses, 
and satisfied with himself. 

It was into this world that George Washington was 
born. While he was still a baby, his father moved 
to a place he purchased on the banks of the Rappa- 
hannock, opposite Fredericksburg, and here the boy's 
childhood was spent. His father died when he was 
only eleven years old, but his mother was a vigorous 
and capable woman, from whom her son inherited 
not a little of his sturdy character. He developed 
into a tall, strong, athletic youth, and many stories 
are told of his prowess. He could jump twenty feet; 
on one occasion he threw a stone across the Rappahan- 
nock, and on another, standing beneath the famous 
l^atural Bridge, threw a stone against its great arch, 
two hundred feet above his head. He grew to be 
over six feet in height and finely proportioned — al- 
together a handsome and capable fellow, who soon 
commanded respect. 

At that time, surveying was a very important oc- 
cupation, since so much of the colony remained to 
be laid out, and George began to study to be a sur- 
veyor, an occupation which appealed to him espe- 

77 



A Guide to Biography 

daily because it was of the open air. He was soon to 
get a very important commission. 

AVhen Augustine Washington died, he bequeathed 
to his elder son, Lawrence, an estate on the Potomac 
called Hunting Creek. Near by lay the magnificent 
estate of Belvoir, owned by the wealthy William 
Fairfax, and Lawrence AYashington had the good 
fortune to win the heart and hand of Fairfax's 
daughter. With the money his bride brought him, 
he was able to build for himself a very handsome 
dwelling on his estate, whose name he changed to 
Mount Vernon, in honor of the English admiral with 
whom he had seen some service. George, of course, 
was a frequent visitor at Belvoir, meeting other mem- 
bers of the Fairfax family, among them Thomas, 
sixth Lord Fairfax, who finally engaged him to sur- 
vey a great estate which had been granted him by 
the king on the slope of the Blue Bidge mountains. 

George Washington was only sixteen years of age 
when he started out on this errand into what was 
then the wilderness. It was a tremendous task which 
he had undertaken, for the estate comprised nearly 
a fifth of the present state, but he did it so well that, 
on Lord Fairfax's recommendation, he was at once 
appointed a public surveyor, and may fairly be said 
to have commenced his public career. His brother 
soon afterwards secured for him the appointment as 
adjutant-general for the district in wdiich he lived, 
so that it became his duty to attend to the organiza- 
tion and equipment of the district militia. This was 
the beginning of his military service and of his study 

78 



Washington to Lincoln 

of military science. He was at that time eighteen 
years of age. 

That was the end of his boyhood. You will notice 
that I have said nothing about his being a marvel 
of goodness or of wisdom — nothing, for instance, 
about a cherry tree. That fable, and a hundred oth- 
ers like it, were the invention of a man who wrote 
a life of Washington half a century after his death, 
and who managed so to enwrap him with disguises, 
that it is only recently we have been able to strip 
them all away and see the man as he really was. 
Washington's boyhood was much like any other. He 
was a strong, vigorous, manly fellow; he got into 
scrapes, just as any healthy boy does; he grew up 
straight and handsome, ready to play his part in the 
world, and he was called upon to play it much earlier 
than most boys are. We shall see what account he 
gave of himself. 

When George was twenty years old, his brother 
Lawrence died and made him his executor. From 
that time forward. Mount Yernon was his home, and 
in the end passed into his possession. But he was not 
long to enjoy the pleasant life there, for a year later, 
he was called upon to perform an important and 
hazardous mission. 

We have seen how La Salle dreamed of a great 
French empire, stretching from the Great Lakes to 
the mouth of the Mississippi. This was already be- 
coming a reality, for the governor of Canada had 
sent troops to occupy the Ohio valley, and to build 
such forts as might be needed to hold it. This was 

79 



A Guide to BiogTaphy 

bringing the French altogether too close for comfort. 
As long as they were content to remain in the Illi- 
nois country, nothing much was thought of it, for 
that was far away; but here they were now right 
at Virginia's back door, and there was no telling 
when they would try to force it open and enter. So 
Governor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, determined to 
dispatch a commissioner to the officer-in-command 
of the French, to summon him to leave English ter- 
ritory. The commissioner was also to try to kill two 
birds with one stone and form an alliance with the 
Indians, so that, if it came to fighting, the Indians 
would be with the English. Xo more delicate and 
dangerous mission could well be conceived, and after 
careful consideration, the governor selected George 
Washington to undertake it. 

On October 30, 1753, Washington left Williams- 
burg, with a journey of more than a thousand miles 
before him. How that journey was accomplished, 
what perils he faced, what difficulties he overcame, 
how, on more than one occasion his life hung by a 
thread — all this he has told, briefly and modestly, in 
the journal which he kept of the expedition. Three 
months from the time he started, he was back again 
in Williamsburg, having faced his first great respon- 
sibility, and done his work absolutely well. He had 
shown a cool courage that nothing could shake, a 
fine patience, and a penetration and perception which 
nothing could escape. He was the hero of the hour 
in the little Virginia capital; the whole colony per- 
ceived that here was a man to be depended upon. 

80 



Washington to Lincoln 

He had found the French very active along the 
Ohio, preparing to build forts and hold the country, 
and laughing at Dinwiddle's summons to vacate it. 
This news caused Virginia to put a military force in 
the field at once, and dispatch it to the west, with 
Washington in virtual command. It was hoped to 
build a strong fort at the junction of the Allegheny 
and Monongahela rivers, which would prevent the 
French getting to the Ohio, since all travel in that 
wilderness must be by water. On May 28, 1754, 
while hastening forward to secure this position, Wash- 
ington's little force encountered a party of French, 
and the first shots were exchanged of the great con- 
test which, twelve years later, was to result in the 
expulsion of the French from the continent. It was 
Washington who gave the word to fire, little fore- 
seeing what history he was making. 

" I heard the bullets whistle," he wrote home to his 
mother, " and believe me, there is something charm- 
ing in the sound " — a bit of bravado which shows 
that Washington had not yet quite outgrown his boy- 
hood. 'No doubt the bullets sounded much less 
charmingly five weeks later when he and his men, 
brought to bay in a rude fortification which he named 
Fort Necessity, were surrounded by a superior force 
of French and Indians, and, after an all-day fight, 
compelled to surrender. It is worth remarking that 
this bitter defeat — the first reverse which Washing- 
ton suffered — occurred on the third day of July, 
1754. Tw^enty-one years from that day, he was to 
draw his sword at the head of an American army. 

81 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

AVasliington made his way back to Virginia witli 
the news of his faihire. The French had occupied 
the vantage ground he was aiming at and at once 
proceeded to erect a fort there, which they named 
Duquesne. Aid was asked from England to repel 
these invaders, and early in 1755, a great force under 
Major-General Edward Braddock advanced against 
the enemy. Washington served as aide-de-camp to 
the general, whose ideas of warfare had been gained 
on the battlefields of Europe, and who could not un- 
derstand that these ideas did not apply to warfare in 
a wilderness. In consequence, w^hen only a few miles 
from the fort, he was attacked by a force of French 
and Indians, his army all but annihilated and he 
himself wounded so severely that he died a few 
days later. During that fierce battle, Washington 
seemed to bear a charmed life. Four bullets tore 
through his coat and two horses were shot under him, 
but he received not a scratch, and did effective work 
in rallying the Virginia militia to cover the retreat. 
Three years later, he had the satisfaction of march- 
ing into Fort Duquesne with an Enghsh force, which 
banished the French for all time from the valley of 
the Ohio. 

That victory ended the war for a time, and Wash- 
ington returned to Virginia to marry a charming and 
wealthy widow, Mrs. Martha Custis, and to take the 
seat in the House of Burgesses to which he had just 
been elected. He served there for fifteen years, liv- 
ing the life of the typical Virginia planter on his 
estate of Mount Vernon, which had passed into his 

82 



Wasliington to Lincoln 

possession through the death of his brother's only 
child. He had become one of the most important 
men of the colony, whose opinion was respected and 
whose influence was very great. 

During all this period, the feeling against Eng- 
land was growing more and more bitter. Let us be 
candid about it. The expulsion of the French from 
the continent had freed the colonies from the danger 
of French aggression and from the feeling that they 
needed the aid of the mother country. That they 
should have been taxed to help defray the great ex- 
pense of this war against the French seems reason- 
able enough, but there happened to be in power in 
England, at the time, a few obstinate and bull-headed 
statesmen, serving under an obstinate and ignorant 
king, and they handled the question of taxation with 
so little tact and delicacy that, among them, they 
managed to rouse the anger of the colonies to the 
boiling point. 

For the colonists, let us remember, were of the 
same obstinate and bull-headed stock, and it was 
soon evident that the only way to settle the differ- 
ence was to fight it out. But the impartial historian 
must write it down that the colonies had much 
more to thank England for than to complain about, 
and that at first, the idea of a war for independence 
was not a popular one. As it went on, and the 
Tories were run out of the country or won over, 
as battle and bloodshed aroused men's passions, 
then it gradually gained ground; but throughout, 
the members of the Continental Congress, led by 

83 



A Guide to Biography 

John and Samuel Adams, were ahead of public 
opinion. 

As we have said, it soon became apparent that 
there was going to be a fight, and independent com- 
panies were formed all over Virginia, and started 
industriously to drilling. Washington, by this time 
the most conspicuous man in the colony, was chosen 
commander-in-chief; and when, at the gathering of 
the second Continental Congress at Philadelphia, 
came news of the fight at Lexington and Concord, 
the army before Boston was formally adopted by the 
Congress as an American army, and Washington w^as 
unanimously chosen to command it. I wonder if any 
one foresaw that day, even in the dimmest fashion, 
what immortality of fame was to come to that tall, 
quiet, dignified man? 

That was on the 15th day of June, 1775, and 
Washington left immediately for Boston to take com- 
mand of the American forces. All along the route, 
the people turned out to welcome him and bid him 
Godspeed. Delegations escorted him from one town 
to the next, and at last, on the afternoon of Jvily 2d, 
he rode into Cambridge, where, the next day, in the 
shadow of a great elm on Cambridge Common, he 
took command of his army, and began the six years' 
struggle which resulted in the establishment of the 
independence of the United States of America. 

His first task was to drive the British from Bos- 
ton, and he had accomplished it by the following 
March. Then came a long period of reverses and 
disappointments, during which his little army, out- 

84 



Washington to Lincoln 

numbered, but not outgeneraled, was driven from 
Long Island, from Xew York, and finally across New 
Jersey, taking refuge on the south bank of the Dela- 
ware. There he gathered it together, and on Christ- 
mas night, 1776, while the enemy were feasting and 
celebrating in their quarters at Trenton, he ferried 
his army back across the ice-blocked river, fell upon 
the British, administered a stinging defeat, and never 
paused until he had driven them from New Jersey. 
That brilliant campaign effectually stifled the op- 
position which he had had to fight in the Congress, 
and resulted in his being given full power over the 
army, and over all parts of the country which the 
army occupied. 

One more terrible ordeal awaited him — the winter 
of 1777-1778 spent at Valley Forge, where the 
army, without the merest necessities of life, melted 
away from desertion and disease, until, at one time, it 
consisted of less than two thousand effective men. 
The next spring saw the turning-point, for France 
allied herself with the United States; the British were 
forced to evacuate Philadelphia and were driven back 
across New Jersey to New York; and, finally, by one 
of the most brilliant marches in history, Washington 
transferred his whole army from the Hudson to the 
Potomac, and trapped Cornwallis and his army of 
seven thousand men at Yorktown. Cornwallis tried 
desperately to free himself, but to no avail, and on 
October 19, 1781, he surrendered his entire force. 

There is a pretty legend that, as Cornwallis de- 
livered up his sword, a cheer started through the 

85 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

American lines, but that Washington stilled it on the 
instant, remarking, " Let posterity cheer for us." 
Whether the legend be true or not, posterity lias 
cheered, for that brilliant victory really ended the 
war, although two years passed before peace was 
declared and the independence of the United States 
acknowledged by the King of England. 

Long before this, everybody knew w^hat the end 
would be, and there was much discussion as to how 
the new country should be governed. A great many 
people were dissatisfied with the Congress, and it was 
suggested to AVashington that there would be a more 
stable government if he would consent himself to 
be King or Dictator, or whatever title he might wish, 
and that the army, which had won the independence 
of the country, would support him. Washington's 
response was prompt and decisive. 

" Let me conjure you," he wrote, " if you have 
any regard for your country, concern for yourself, 
or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your 
mind, and never communicate, as from yourself or 
any one else, a sentiment of like nature." 

It was perhaps the first time in the history of the 
world that men had witnessed the like. Soon after- 
wards, the army was disbanded, and Washington, 
proceeding to Annapolis, where the Congress was in 
session, resigned his commission as commander-in- 
chief. There are some who consider that the great- 
est scene in history — the hero sheathing his sword 
" after a life of spotless honor, a purity unreproached, 
a courage indomitable, and a consummate victory." 

86 



Washington to Lincoln 

A private citizen again, Washington returned 
quietly to his estate at Mount Vernon. But he could 
not remain there — the country needed him too badly, 
and his great work was yet to do. For let us re- 
member that his great work was not the leading of 
the American army to victory, not the securing of 
independence, but the establishment of this Kepublic. 
More than of any other man was this the work of 
Washington. He saw the feeble Confederation 
breaking to pieces, now that the stress of danger was 
removed; he beheld the warring interests and petty 
jealousies of statesmen who yet remained colonial; 
but he was determined that out of these thirteen 
jarring colonies should come a nation; and when the 
convention to form a constitution met at Philadel- 
phia, he presided over it, and it was his commanding 
will which brought a constitution out of a turmoil 
of selfish interests, through difficulties and past ob- 
stacles which would have discouraged any other man. 

And, the Constitution once adopted, all men turned 
to Washington to start the new Nation on her great 
voyage. Remember, there was no government, only 
some written pages saying that a government was to 
be; it was Washington who converted that idea into 
a reality, who brought that govermnent into ex- 
istence. It was a venture new to history ; a Republic 
founded upon principles which, however admirable in 
the abstract, had been declared impossible to embody 
in the life of a nation. And yet, eight years later, 
when Washington retired from the presidency, he 
left behind him an effective government, with an. 

87 



A Guide to Biography 

established revenue, a high credit, a strong judiciary, 
a vigorous foreign policy, and an army which had 
repressed insurrections, and which already showed the 
beginnings of a truly national spirit. 

At the end of his second term as President, the 
country demanded that he accept a third; the coun- 
try, without AVashington at the head of it, seemed 
to many people like a ship on a dangerous sea with- 
out a pilot. But he had guided her past the greatest 
dangers, and he refused a third term, setting a prec- 
edent which no man in the country's history has 
been strong enough to disregard. In March, 1797, 
he was back again at Mount Yernon, a private 
citizen. 

He looked forward to and hoped for long years of 
quiet, but it was not to be. On December 12, 1799, 
he was caught by a rain and sleet storm, while riding 
over his farm, and returned to the house chilled 
through. An illness followed, which developed into 
pneumonia, and three days later he was dead. 

He was buried at Mount Yernon, which has be- 
come one of the great shrines of America, and rightly 
so. For no man, at once so august and so lovable, 
has graced American history. Indeed, he stands 
among the greatest men of all history. There are 
few men with such a record of achievement, and 
fewer still who, at the end of a life so crowded and 
cast in such troubled places, can show a fame so free 
from spot, a character so unselfish and so pure. 

We know Washington to-day as well as it is pos- 
sible to know any man. We know him far better than 

88 



Wasliington to Lincoln 

the people of his own household knew him. Behind 
the silent and reserved man, of courteous and serious 
manner, which his world knew, we perceive the great 
nature, the warm heart and the mighty will. We 
have his letters, his journals, his account-books, and 
there remains no corner of his life hidden from us. 
There is none that needs to be. Think what that 
means — not a single corner of his life that needs 
to be shadowed or passed over in silence! And the 
more we study it, the more we are impressed by it, 
and the greater grows our love and veneration for 
the man of whom were uttered the immortal words, 
" First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts 
of his countrymen " — words whose truth grows more 
apparent with every passing year. 

It is one of the maxims of history that great events 
produce great men, and the struggle for independ- 
ence abundantly proved this. Never again in the 
country's history did it possess such a group of states- 
men as during its first years, the only other period 
at all comparable with it being that which culminated 
in the Civil War. It was inevitable that these men 
should assume the guidance of the newly-launched 
ship of state, and Washington had, in every way 
possible, availed himself of their assistance. Alex- 
ander Hamilton had been his secretary of the treas- 
ury, Thomas Jefferson his secretary of state, and 
James Monroe his minister to France. The first man 
to succeed him in the presidency, however, was none 
of these, but John Adams of Massachusetts. His 

89 



A Guide to Biography 

election was not uncontested, as Washington's had 
been; in fact, he was elected by a majority of only 
three, Jefferson receiving 68 electoral votes to his 71. 

Let us pause for a moment to see how this contest 
originated, for it was the beginning of the party 
government which has endured to the present day, 
and which is considered by many people to be es- 
sential to the administration of the Republic. When 
Washington was elected there were, strictly speak- 
ing, no parties; but there was a body of men who 
had favored the adoption of the Constitution, and an- 
other, scarcely less influential, who had opposed it. 
The former were called Federals, as favoring a 
federation of the several states, and the latter were 
called Anti-Federals, as opposing it. 

One point of difference always leads to others, 
wider and wider apart, as the rain-drop, shattered 
on the summit of the Great Divide, flows one half to 
the Atlantic the other half to the Pacific. So, after 
the adoption of the Constitution, there was never 
any serious question of abrogating it, but two views 
arose as to its interpretation. The Federals, in their 
endeavor to strengthen the national government, 
favored the liberal view, which was that anything the 
Constitution did not expressly forbid was permitted ; 
while the Anti-Federals, anxious to preserve all the 
power possible to the several states, favored the strict 
view, which was that unless the Constitution expressly 
permitted a thing, it could not be done. As there 
were many, many points upon which the Constitution 
was silent — its f ramers being mere human beings and 

90 



Wasliinoton to Lincoln 



'to 



not all-wise intelligences — it will be seen that these 
interpretations were as different as black and white. 
It was this divergence, combined with another as to 
whether, in joining the Union, the several states had 
surrendered their sovereignty, which has persisted as 
the fundamental difference between the Republican 
and Democratic parties to the present day. 

Adams was a Federalist, and his choice as the 
candidate of that party was due to the fact that Ham- 
ilton, its leader, was too unpopular with the people 
at large to stand any chance of election, more espe- 
cially against such a man as Jefferson, who would be 
his opponent. With Hamilton out of the way, the 
place plainly belonged to Adams by right of suc- 
cession, and he was nominated. He was aided by 
the fact that he had served as Vice-President during 
both of Washington's administrations, and it was 
felt that he would be much more likely to carry out 
the policies of his distinguished predecessor than Jef- 
ferson, who had been opposed to Washington on 
many public questions. Even at that, as has been 
said, he won by a majority of only three votes. 

In a general way Adams did continue Washing- 
ton's policies, even retaining his cabinet. But, while 
his attitude on national questions was, in the main, 
a wise one, he was so unwise and undignified in minor 
things, so consumed by petty jealousies, envies and 
contentions, that he made enemies instead of friends, 
and when, four years later, he was again the Federal 
candidate, he was easily beaten by Jefferson, and 
retired from the White House a soured and dis- 

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A Guide to Biography 

appointed man, fleeing from the capital by night in 
order that he might not have to witness the inaugu- 
ration of his successor. To such depths had he been 
brought by colossal egotism. In his earlier years, 
he had done distinguished service as a member of the 
Continental Congress, but his prestige never recov- 
ered from the effect of his conduct during his term 
as President, and his last years were passed in retire- 
ment. By a singular coincidence, he and Jefferson 
died upon the same day, July 4, 1826. 

Thomas Jefferson, whose influence is perhaps more 
generally acknowledged in the life of the Republic 
of to-day than that of any other man of his time, 
and whose name, Washington's apart, is oftenest on 
men's lips, was born in Virginia in 1743, graduated 
from William and Mary College, studied law, and 
took a prominent part in the agitation preceding the 
Revolution. Early in his life, owing to various in- 
fluences, he began forming those ideas of simplicity 
and equality which had such an influence over his 
later life, and over the great party of which he was 
the founder. His temperament was what we call 
"artistic"; that is, he loved books and music and 
architecture, and the things which make for what we 
call culture. And yet, with all that, he soon grew 
wise and skillful in the world's affairs, possessing an 
industry and insight which assured his speedy success 
as a lawyer, despite an impediment of speech which 
prevented him from being an effective orator. 

He had the good fortune to marry happily, find- 
ing a comrade and helpmate, as well as a wife, in 

92 



Washington to Lincoln 

beautiful Martha Skelton, with whom he rode away 
to his estate at Monticello when he was twenty-seven. 
She saw him write the Declaration of Independence, 
saw him war-governor of Virginia, and second only 
to Washington in the respect and affection of the peo- 
ple of that great commonwealth; and then she died. 
The shock of her death left Jefferson a stricken man; 
he secluded himself from the public, and declared 
that his life was at an end. 

Washington, however, eight years later, persuaded 
him to accept a place in his cabinet as secretary of 
state. Within a year he had definitely taken his 
place as the head of the Anti-Federalist, or Eepub- 
lican party, and laid the foundations of what after- 
wards became known as the Democratic party. His 
trust in the people had grown and deepened, his heart 
had grown more tender with the coming of affliction, 
and it was his theory that in a democracy, the peo- 
ple should control public policy by imposing their 
wishes upon their rulers, who were answerable to 
them — a theory which is now accepted, in appear- 
ance, at least, by all political parties, but which the 
Federalist leaders of that time thoroughly detested. 
Jefferson seems to have felt, too, that the tendency of 
those early years was tob greatly toward an aris- 
tocracy, which the landed gentry of Virginia were 
only too willing to provide, and when, at last, he was 
chosen for the presidency, he set the country such an 
example of simplicity and moderation that there was 
never again any chance of its running into that 
danger. 

93 



A Guide to Biography 

Everyone has read the story of how, on the day 
of his inauguration, he rode on horseback to the 
capitol, clad in studiously plain clothes and without 
attendants, tied his horse to the fence, and walked 
unannounced into the Senate chamber. This careful 
avoidance of display marked his whole official career, 
running sometimes, indeed, into an ostentation of 
simplicity whose good taste might be questioned. 
But of Jefferson^s entire sincerity there can be no 
doubt. Inconsistent as he sometimes was — as every 
man is — his purposes and policies all tended steadily 
toward the betterment of humanity; and the great 
mass of the people who to this day revere his 
memory, " pay a just debt of gratitude to a friend 
who not only served them, as many have done, but 
who honored and respected them, as very few have 
done." 

Perhaps the greatest single act of his administra- 
tion was the purchase from France of the vast terri- 
tory knowm as Louisiana, which included the state 
now bearing that name, and the wide, untrodden 
wilderness west of the Mississippi, paying for it the 
sum of fifteen million dollars — a rate of a fraction of 
a cent an acre. The purchase aroused the bitterest 
opposition, but Jefferson seems to have had a clearer 
vision than most men of what the future of America 
was to be. He served for two terms, refusing a third 
nomination which he was besought to accept, and re- 
tiring to private life on March 4, 1809, after a nearly 
continuous public service of forty-four years. The 
remainder of his life was spent quietly at his home 

94 




JEFFERSON 



Washington to Lincoln 

at Monticello, where men flocked for a guidance 
which never failed them. The cause to which his 
last years were devoted was characteristic of the 
man — the establishment of a common school sys- 
tem in Virginia, and the founding of the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, which still bears the imprint of his 
mind. 

Jefferson is one of the few men whose portrait, as 
preserved for us, shows us the man as we imagine 
him to be. Xo one can look at that lofty and noble 
countenance, w^ith its calm and wide-set eyes, its 
firm yet tender mouth, its expression of complete 
serenity, without realizing that here was a man 
placed above the weakness and pettiness and mean- 
ness of the world, on a pinnacle of his own, strong 
in spirit, wise in judgment, and almost prophetic in 
vision. 

The presidency descended, by an overwhelming 
majority, to one of Jefferson's stanch friends and 
supporters, for whom he had paved the way — James 
Madison, also a Virginian, who had been his secretary 
of state for eight years, and Avho was himself to serve 
two terms, during which the influence of the " Sage 
of Monticello '^ was paramount. The great crisis 
which Madison had to face was the second war with 
England, a war brought on by British aggression on 
the high seas, and bitterly opposed, especially in ]^ew 
England. The war, characterized by blunders on land 
and brilliant successes on the ocean, really resulted 
without victory to either side, and, indeed, was very 
nearly a defeat for America; but in the end, it ena- 

95 



A Guide to Biography 

bled us to regain possession of the posts which Eng- 
land had persisted in occupying along the western 
boundary, and banished forever any fear that she 
might, at any time in the future, attempt to reassert 
her sovereignty over the United States. 

Madison was also fortunate in his wife, the beau- 
tiful and brilliant Dolly Payne Todd, who played 
so prominent a j^art in the social life of the time, and 
who, when the British were marching into AYasli- 
ington to sack that city, managed to save some of 
the treasures of the White House from the invaders. 
It is difficult for us to realize, at this distant day, 
that our beautiful capital was once in the enemy's 
hands, given over to the flames; that Avas one of the 
great disgraces of the War of 1812; for the only 
force which rallied to the defense of the city was 
a few regiments of untrained militia, which could 
not stand for a minute before the British regulars, 
but ran away at the first fire. 

Madison and his wife, however, soon came back 
to the White House from which they had been 
driven, and remained there four years longer, until 
the close of his second term, in 1817. For nearly a 
score of years thereafter, they lived a happy and 
tranquil life on their estate, Montpelier. 

It is somewhat difficult to estimate Madison. He 
stood on a sort of middle ground between Jefferson 
and Hamilton. Earlier in his career, Hamilton in- 
fluenced him deeply in regard to the adoption of the 
Constitution, of which he has been called the father. 
But, at a later date, Jefferson's influence became up- 

96 



Washington to Lincoln 

permost, and Madison swung over to tlie extreme of 
the state rights view, and drew the resolutions of the 
Virginia legislature declaring the Alien and Sedition 
laws '' utterly null and void and of no effect," so that 
he has also been called the " Father of ^Nullification." 
However unstable his opinions may have been, there 
is no questioning his patriotism or the purity of his 
motives. 

Again the presidential tradition was to remain un- 
broken, for Madison's successor was James Monroe, 
his secretary of state, a Virginian and a Democrat. 
The preponderance of the Democratic party was 
never more in evidence, for while he received 183 
electoral votes, Rufus King, the Federalist candidate, 
received only 34. This, however, was as nothing 
to the great personal triumph he achieved four years 
later, when, as a candidate for re-election, only one 
vote was cast against him, and that by a man who 
voted as he did because he did not wish to see a 
second President chosen with the unanimity which 
had honored Washington. 

Monroe is principally remembered to-day from a 
" doctrine " enunciated by him and known by his 
name, which remains a vital portion of American 
policy. It was in 1823 that he declared that the 
United States would consider any attempt of a Eu- 
ropean power to establish itself in this hemisphere as 
dangerous to her peace and safety, and as the mani- 
festation of an unfriendly disposition. The language 
is cautious and diplomatic, but what it means in 
plain English is that the United States will resist 

97 



A Guide to Biography 

bj force any attempt of a European power to conquer 
and colonize any portion of the three Americas — in 
other words, that this country will safeguard the 
independence of all her neighbors. This principle 
has come to be regarded as a basic one in the 
foreign relations of the United States, and while no 
European power has formally acknowledged it, more 
than one have had to bow before it. It is interest- 
ing to know that the enunciation of such a " doc- 
trine '^ was recommended by Thomas Jefferson, and 
that Jefferson was Monroe's constant adviser through- 
out his career. 

Monroe retired from the presidency in 1825, and 
the seven remaining years of his life were passed 
principally on his estate in Virginia. Jefferson said 
of him, " He is a man whose soul might be turned 
wrong side outwards, without discovering a blemish 
to the world," — an estimate which was, of course, 
colored by a warm personal friendship, but which, 
was echoed by many others of his contemporaries. 
Certain it is that few men have ever so won the 
affection and esteem of the nation, and his adminis- 
tration was known as the " era of good feeling." He 
is scarcely appreciated to-day at his true worth, 
principally because he does not measure up in genius 
to the great men who preceded him. 

At striking variance with the practical unanimity 
of Monroe's election was that of John Quincy 
Adams, his successor. Over a quarter of a century 
had elapsed since a northern man had been chosen 
to the presidency. That man, strangely enough, was 

98 



Washington to Lincoln 



*& 



the father of the present candidate, but had retired 
from office after one acrimonious term, discredited 
and disappointed. Since then, the government of 
the country had been in the hands of Virginians. 
jN^ow came John Quincj Adams, calling himself a 
Democrat, but really inheriting the principles of his 
father, and the contest which ensued for the presi- 
dency was unprecedented in the history of the coun- 
try. 

Adams's principal opponent was Andrew Jackson, 
a mighty man of whom we shall soon have occasion 
to speak, and so close w^as the contest that the 
electoral college was not able to make a choice. So, 
as provided by the Constitution, it was carried to the 
House of Representatives, and there, through the 
influence of Henry Clay, who was unfriendly to 
Jackson, Adams was chosen by a small majority. An 
administration which began in bitterness, continued 
bitter and turbulent. Men's passions were aroused, 
and four years later Adams repeated the fate of his 
father, in being overwhelmingly defeated. 

But the most remarkable portion of his story is 
vet to come. Before that time, it had been the 
custom, as we have seen, for the ex-President to spend 
the remaining years of his life in dignified retire- 
ment; but the vear after Adams left the White 
House, he was elected to the House of Representa- 
tives, and was returned regularly every two years 
imtil his death, which occurred upon its floor. He 
did much excellent work there, and w^as conspicuous 
in more than one memorable scene, but he is chiefly 

99 



A Guide to Biography 

remembered for his battle for the right of petition. 
No more persistent fight was ever made by a man 
in a parliamentary body and some reference must 
be made to it here. 

Soon after he took his seat in Congress, the move- 
ment against slavery was begun, and one fruit of 
it was the appearance of petitions for the abolition 
of slavery in the House of Representatives. A few 
were presented by Mr. Adams, and then more and 
more, as they were sent in to him, and finally the 
southern representatives became so aroused, that they 
succeeded in passing what was known as the " gag 
rule," which prevented the reception of these peti- 
tions by the House. Adams protested against this 
rule as an invasion of his constitutional rights, and 
from that time forward, amid the bitterest opposition, 
addressed his whole force toward the vindication of 
the right of petition. On every petition day, he 
would oifer, in constantly increasing numbers, peti- 
tions Avhicli came to him from all parts of the coun- 
try for the abolition of slavery. The southern rep- 
resentatives were driven almost to madness, but 
Adams kept doggedly on his way, and every year 
renewed his motion to strike out the gag rule. As 
constant dripping will wear away a stone, so his 
persistence wore away opposition, or, rather, the sen- 
timent of the country was gradually changing, and 
at last, on December 3, 1844, his motion prevailed, 
and the great battle which he had fought practically 
alone was won. Four years later he fell, stricken 
with paralysis, at his place in the House. 

100 



Wasliiugton to Lincoln 

It is worth pausing to remark that, of the six men 
who, up to this time, had held the presidency, four 
were from Virginia and two from Massachusetts; 
that, in every instance, the Virginians had been re- 
elected and had administered the affairs of the coun- 
try to the satisfaction of the people, while both the 
Massachusetts men had been retired from office at 
the end of a single term, and after turbulent and 
violent administrations. All of them were what may 
fairly be called patricians, men of birth and breed- 
ing; they were the possessors of a certain culture and 
refinement, were descended from well-known families, 
and there seemed every reason to believe that the 
administration of the country would be continued in 
the hands of such men. For what other class of men 
was fitted to direct it? Then, suddenly, the people 
spoke, and selected for their ruler a man from among 
themselves, a man whose college was the backwoods, 
whose opinions were prejudices rather than convic- 
tions, and yet who was, withal, perhaps the greatest 
popular idol this country will ever see; whose very 
blunders endeared him to the people, because they 
knew his heart was right. 

On the fifteenth day of March, 1767, in a little 
log cabin on the upper Catawba river, almost on the 
border-line between North and South Carolina — so 
near it, in fact, that no one knows certainly in which 
state it stood — a boy was born and christened An- 
drew Jackson. His father had died a few days be- 
fore — one of those sturdy Scotch-Irish whom we have 

101 



A Guide to Biogi'apliy 

seen emigrating to America in sucli numbers in search 
of a land of freedom. The boy grew up in the rude 
backwoods settlement, rough, boisterous, imlettered; 
at the age of fourteen, riding with Sumter in the 
guerrilla warfare waged throughout the state against 
the British, and then, captured and wounded on head 
and hand by a sabre-stroke whose mark he bore till 
his dying day, a prisoner in the filthy Camden prison- 
pen, sick of the small-pox, and coming out of it, at 
last, more dead than alive. 

His mother nursed him back to life, and then start- 
ed for Charleston to see what could be done for the 
prisoners rotting in the British prison-ships in the 
harbor, only herself to catch the prison-fever, and 
to be buried in a grave which her son was never able 
to discover. 

Young Jackson, sobered by this and other experi- 
ences, applied himself wdth some diligence to his 
books, taught school for a time, studied law, and at 
the age of twenty was admitted to the bar, for which 
the standard was by no means high. To the west, 
the new state of Tennessee was in process of organi- 
zation — an unpeopled wilderness for the most part — 
and early in the year 1788, Jackson secured the ap- 
pointment as public prosecutor in the new state. It 
is not probable he had much competition, for the posi- 
tion was one calling for desperate courage, as well 
as for endurance to withstand the privations of back- 
woods life, and the pecuniary reward was small. In 
the fall of 1788, he proceeded to Xashville with a 
wagon train which came within an ace of being 

102 



Washington to Lincoln 

annihilated by Indians before it reached its desti- 
nation. 

Jackson found his new position exactly suited to 
his peculiar genius. His personal recklessness made 
him the terror of criminals; he possessed the precise 
qualifications for success before backwoods juries and 
for personal popularity among the rough people who 
were his clients, with whom usually might was right. 
At the end of three or four years, he practically mo- 
nopolized the law business of the district ; and he soon 
became by far the most popular man in it, despite a 
hot-headed disposition which made him many enemies, 
which involved him in numberless quarrels, and 
which resulted in his fighting at least one duel, in 
which he killed his opponent and was himself danger- 
ously wounded. 

It was inevitable, of course, that he should enter 
politics, and equally inevitable that he should be suc- 
cessful there. Eight years after his arrival from 
Carolina, at the age of twenty-nine, he was elected 
to represent his state in Congress, and covered the 
eight hundred miles to Philadelphia on horseback. 
From the House, he was appointed to serve in the 
Senate, resigned from it to accept an election as 
Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, was 
chosen major-general of the Tennessee militia, and 
so began that military career which was to have a 
remarkable culmination. 

On the 25th of June, 1812, apprised of the out- 
break of the second war with England, Jackson 
offered to the President his own services and those 

103 



A Guide to Biography 

of the twenty-five hundred militia men of his district. 
The offer was at once accepted, and Jackson, getting 
his troops together, proceeded down the river to New 
Orleans. But jealousies at headquarters intervened, 
he was informed that New Orleans was in no present 
danger, his force was disbanded and left to get back 
home as best it could. Jackson, wild with rage, 
pledged his own resources to furnish this transpor- 
tation, but was afterwards reimbursed by the gov^ 
ernment. 

It was while he was getting his men back home 
again that Jackson received the nickname of " Old 
Hickory," which clung to him all the rest of his life, 
and which was really a good description of him. The 
story also illustrates how it was that his men came 
to idolize him, and why it was that he appealed so 
strongly to the common people. Jackson had three 
good horses, on that weary journey, but instead of 
riding one of them himself, he loaned all three to 
sick men who were unable to walk, and himself 
trudged along at the head of his men. 

"The general is tough, isn't he?" one of them 
remarked, glancing at the tall, sturdy figure. 

" Tough ! " echoed another. " I should say he is 
— as tough as hickory! " 

Jackson was lying in bed with a bullet in his 
shoulder, which, he had received in an affray with 
Jesse Benton, and also, no doubt, nursing his chagrin 
over his treatment by the "War Department, when 
news came of a great Indian uprising in Alabama. 
The Creeks had gone on the warpath and had opened 

104 



Washington to Lincoln 

proceedings by capturing Fort Mims, at the junc- 
tion of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, on 
August 30, 1813, and massacring over five hundred 
people who had taken refuge there. Alabama was 
almost abandoned by the whites, and Georgia and 
Tennessee at once rushed to her relief by voting men 
and money to put down the Indians. 

Jackson forgot wound and chagrin and took the 
field as soon as he was able to stir. He at once quar- 
relled with the other officers; but his men believed 
in him, though lack of food and the expiring of the 
short term of enlistment created so much insubordi- 
nation that, on one occasion, he had to use half his 
army to prevent the other half from marching home. 
His energy was remarkable; he pushed forward into 
the Creek country, cut the Indians to pieces at Horse- 
shoe Bend, and drove the survivors into Florida. At 
the end of seven months, the war was over, and the 
Creeks had been so punished that there was never any 
further need to fear them. 

The campaign had another result — it established 
Jackson's reputation as a fighter, and soon afterwards 
he was appointed a major-general in the army of the 
United States, and was given command of the De- 
partment of the South. The pendulum had swung 
the other way, with a vengeance! But Jackson rose 
magnificently to this increased responsibility. He 
discovered that the English were in force at Pen- 
sacola, which was in Florida and therefore on Span- 
ish territory; but he did not hesitate. He marched 
against the place with an army of three thousand, 

105 



A Guide to Biographj 

stormed the town, captured it, blew up the forts, 
which the Spaniards hastily surrendered, and so made 
it untenable as an English base. Perhaps no other 
exploit of his career was so audacious, or so well car- 
ried out. Pensacola subdued, he hastened to !N^ew 
Orleans, which was in the gravest danger. 

The overthrow of ^N^apoleon and his banishment to 
Elba had given England a breathing-space, and the 
veteran troops which had been with Wellington in 
Spain were left free for use against the Americans. 
A great expedition was at once organized to attack 
and capture ISTew Orleans, and at its head was placed 
General Pakenham, the brilliant commander of the 
column which had delivered the fatal blow at Sala- 
manca. A fleet of fifty vessels, manned by the best 
sailors of England, was got ready, ten thousand men 
put aboard, and in December, a week after Jackson's 
arrival at ISTew Orleans, this great fleet anchored off 
the broad lagoons of the Mississippi delta. Seventeen 
thousand men, in all, counting the sailors, who could, 
of course, be employed in land operations; and a 
mighty equipment of artillery, for which the guns of 
the fleet could also be used. The few American 
gunboats were overpowered, and Pakenham pro- 
ceeded leisurely to land his force for the advance 
against the city, which it seemed that nothing could 
save. On December 23d, his advance-guard of two 
thousand men was but ten miles below Xew Orleans. 

On the afternoon of that very day, the vanguard 
of Jackson's Tennesseans marched into New Orleans, 
clad in hunting-shirts of buckskin or homespun, wear- 

106 



Washington to Lincoln 

ing coonskin caps, and carrying on their shoulders the 
long rifles they knew how to use so well. They had 
made one of the most remarkable marches in history, 
in their eagerness to meet the enemy, and Jackson at 
once hurried them forward for a night attack. It 
was delivered with the greatest fury, and the British 
were so roughly handled that they were forced to 
halt until the main body of the army came up. 

When they did advance, they found that Jackson 
had made good use of the delay. With the first light 
of the dawn which followed the battle, he had com- 
menced throwing up a rude breastwork, one end rest- 
ing on the river, the other on a swamp, and by night- 
fall, it was nearly done. Mud and logs had been 
used, and bales of cotton, until it formed a fairly 
strong position. The British were hurrying forward 
reinforcements, and little did either side suspect that 
on that very day, at Ghent, thousands of miles away, 
a treaty of peace had been signed between the United 
States and England, and that the blood they were 
about to spill would be spilled uselessly. 

In a day or two, the British had got up their artil- 
lery, and tried to batter down the breastworks, but 
without success; then, Pakenham, forgetting Bunker 
Hill, determined to try a frontal assault. He had 
no doubt of victory, for he had three times as many 
men as Jackson; troops, too, seasoned by victories 
won over the most renowned marshals of iN^apoleon. 
At Toulouse they had driven Marshal Soult from 
a position infinitely stronger than this rude breast- 
works; time after time they had charged and carried 

107 



A Guide to Biography 

fortifications, manned by the best soldiers in Europe. 
What chance, then, had this little force of backwoods- 
men, commanded by an ignorant and untrained gen- 
eral? So Pakenham ordered that the assault should 
take place on the morning of January 8th. 

From the bustle and stir in the British camp, the 
Americans knew that something unusual was afoot, 
and long before dawn, the riflemen were awake, had 
their breakfast, and then took their places behind 
the mud walls, their rifles ready. At last the sun 
rose, the fog lifted, and disclosed the splendid and 
gleaming lines of the British infantry, ready for the 
advance. As soon as the air was clear, Pakenham 
gave the word, and the columns moved steadily for- 
ward. From the American breastworks not a rifle 
cracked. Half the distance was covered, three- 
fourths; and then, as one man, those sturdy riflemen 
rose and fired, line upon line. Under that terrible 
fire, the British column broke and paused, then surged 
forward again, almost to the foot of the breastworks. 
But not a man lived to mount them. 'No column 
could stand under such a fire, and the British broke 
and ran. 

Mad with rage, Pakenham rallied his men and 
placed himself at their head. Again came the word 
to charge, and again that gleaming column rushed 
forward, only to be again met by that deadly hail of 
lead. Pakenham, mortally wounded, reeled and fell 
from his saddle, oflicer after ofl^cer was picked off 
by those unequalled marksmen, the field was covered 
with dead and dying. Even the British saw, at last, 

108 



Washington to Lincoln 

the folly of the movement, and retired sullenly to 
their lines. For a week they lay there; then, aban- 
doning their heavy artillery, they marched back to 
their ships and sailed for England. The men who had 
conquered the conquerors of Europe had themselves 
met defeat. 

The battle had lasted less than half an hour, but 
the British left behind them no less than twenty-six 
hundred men — seven hundred killed, fourteen hun- 
dred wounded, five hundred prisoners. The Amer- 
ican loss was eight killed and thirteen wounded. 

!N^ews of this brilliant victory brought sudden joy 
to a depressed people, for elsewhere on land the war 
had been waged disgracefully enough, and Jackson's 
name was on everyone's lips. His journey to Wash- 
ington was a kind of triumphal march, and his pop- 
ularity grew by leaps and bounds. People journeyed 
scores of miles to see him, for there was a strange 
fascination about the rugged old fighter which few 
could resist, and already his friends were urging him 
as a candidate for the presidency. There could be 
no doubt that he was the people's choice, and at 
last, in the campaign of 1823, he was formally placed 
in nomination, his chief opponent being John Quincy 
Adams, of Massachusetts. The result of that contest 
has already been told. Jackson received more elec- 
toral votes than any other candidate, but not enough 
to elect, and the contest was decided by the House of 
Representatives. On that occasion, Henry Clay came 
nearer committing political suicide than ever again 
in his life, for he threw his influence against Jack- 

109 



A Guide to Biography 

son, and lost a portion of his popularity which he 
never recovered. 

Jackson bided his time, and spent the four years 
following in careful preparation for the next contest. 
So well did he build his fences that, when the elec- 
toral vote was cast, he received the overwhelming 
majority of 178 votes to 83 for Adams. 

I^ever before had the city of Washington seen 
such an inauguration as took place on the fourth of 
March following. It seemed as though the whole 
population of the country had assembled there to see 
the old fighter take the oath of office. Daniel Web- 
ster wrote of it, " I never saw such a crowd here 
before. Persons came five hundred miles to see Gen- 
eral Jackson and really seem to think that our coun- 
try is rescued from some dreadful danger.'^ As, 
perhaps, it was. 

Jackson began his administration with character- 
istic vigor. It was he who first put into practice the 
principle, " To the victors belong the spoils." There 
was about him no academic courtesy, and he pro- 
ceeded at once to displace many Federal officeholders 
and to replace them with his own adherents. The 
Senate tried for a time to stem the tide, but was 
forced to give it up. There was no withstanding that 
fierce and dominant personality. Jackson was more 
nearly a dictator than any President had ever been 
before him, or than any will ever be again. His 
great popularity seemed rather to increase than to 
diminish, and in 1832, he received no less than 219 
electoral votes. 

110 




JACKSON 



"Wasliington to Lincoln 

Let ns do liim justice. Prejudiced and ignorant 
and wrong-headed as he was, he was a pure patriot, 
laboring for his country's good. E^othing proves this 
more strongly than his attitude on the nullification 
question, in other words, the right of a state to refuse 
to obey a law of the United States, and to withdraw 
from the Union, should it so desire. This is not 
the place to go into the constitutional argument on 
this question. It is, of course, all but certain that 
the original thirteen states had no idea, when they 
ratified the Constitution, that they were entering an 
alliance from which they would forever be powerless 
to withdraw; and the right of withdrawal had been 
asserted in l^ew England more than once. South 
Carolina was the hot-bed of nullification sentiment, 
arising partly from the growing anti-slavery feeling 
at the l^orth, and partly because of the enactment of 
a tariff law which was felt to be unjust, and on 
October 25, 1832, the South Carolina legislature 
passed an ordinance asserting that, since the state 
had entered the Union of its free will, it could with- 
draw from it at any time and resume the sovereign 
and independent position which it had held at the 
close of the Revolution, and that it would do so should 
there be any attempt to enforce the tariff laws within 
the state. 

Jackson's attitude on this question was already 
well known. At a banquet celebrating Jefferson's 
birthday, two years before, at which Calhoun and 
others had given toasts and made addresses in favor 
of nullification, Jackson had startled his audience by 

111 



A Guide to Biography 

rising, glass in hand, and giving the toast, " Our Fed- 
eral Union — it must be preserved! '' That toast had 
fallen like a bombshell among the ranks of the nulli- 
fiers, and had electrified the whole Kation. Since 
then, he had become a stronger nationalist than ever; 
besides, he was always ready for a fight, and when- 
ever he saw a head had the true Irislnnan's impulse 
to hit it. So he responded to the South Carolina 
nullification ordinance by sending two men-of-war 
to Charleston harbor and collecting a force of United 
States troops along the Carolina border. " I con- 
sider the power to annul a law of the United States, 
assumed by one state, incompatible with the existence 
of the Union," he wrote; and when a South Carolina 
congressman, about to go home, asked the President 
if he had any commands for his friends in that state, 
Jackson retorted: 

"Yes, I have; please give my compliments to my 
friends in your state, and say to them that if a single 
drop of blood shall be shed there in opposition to 
the laws of the United States, I will hang the first 
man I can lay my hands on, engaged in such treason- 
able conduct, upon the first tree I can reach." 

Whether or not this message was delivered history 
does not say, but the whole Nation arose in wrath 
behind its President, state after state denounced 
nullification and disunion, and the South Carolina 
ordinance was finally repealed. So the storm passed 
for the moment. It left Jackson more of a popular 
hero than ever; it was as though he had won another 
battle of New Orleans. One cannot but wonder what 

112 



"Washington to Lincoln 

would have happened had he been acting as Presi- 
dent, instead of Buchanan, in those trying years after 
1856. 

He retired from the presidency broken in health 
and fortune, for however w^ell he took care of the 
interests of his friends, he was always careless about 
his own. The last eight years of his life were spent 
at his Tennessee estate. The Hermitage. The end 
came in 1845, but his name has remained as a kind 
of watchword among the common people — a synonym 
for rugged honesty, and bluff sincerity. His career 
is, all in all, by far the most remarkable of any man 
who ever held the high office of President — with one 
possible exception, that of Abraham Lincoln, 

Jackson was one of the most perfect political 
manipulators and machine-builders this country ever 
saw, and he had so perfected his machine at the close 
of his second term that he was able to name as his 
successor and the heir of his policies, Martin Van 
Buren, of New York, a man w^ho had been one of 
Jackson's most valued lieutenants from the first, an 
astute politician, but not remarkable in any way, nor 
able to impress himself upon the country. He an- 
nounced at his inauguration that it was his intention 
to tread in the footsteps of his ^^ illustrious predeces- 
sor," but none for a moment imagined that he was 
big enough to fill Jackson's shoes. Indeed, Jackson 
was by far the most important figure at the in- 
auguration. 

Van Buren's term as President witnessed nothing 

113 



A Guide to Biography 

more momentous than the great panic of 1837, which 
he faced with a cahnness and clear-sightedness sur- 
prising even to his friends, but which nevertheless 
assisted a collection of malcontents, imder the leader- 
ship of Henry Clay, calling themselves N^ational Re- 
publicans or Whigs, to defeat him for re-election. 
There was really no valid reason why he should have 
been re-elected; he had little claim upon the country, 
but was for the most part, merely a clever politician, 
the first to attain the presidency. His life had been 
marked by an orderly advance from local to state, 
and then to national offices — an advance obtained not 
because he stood for any great principle, but because 
he knew how to make friends and build his political 
fences. 

His nomination and election to the presidency was 
in no sense an accident, as was Taylor's, Pierce's, 
Hayes's and Garfield's, but was carefully prear- 
ranged and thoroughly understood. Yet let us do 
him the justice to add that his public services were, 
in some respects, of a high order, and that he was 
not wholly unworthy of the last great honor paid 
him. He was a candidate for the nomination in 
1844, but was defeated by James K. Polk; and four 
years later, secured the nomination, but was defeated 
at the polls by Zachary Taylor. That ended his 
political career. 

In the campaign against him of 1840, the AVhigs 
were fortunate in having for their candidate William 
Henry Harrison, a man of immense personal j^op- 
ularity, resembling Jackson in that his reputation had 

114 



Washington to Lincoln 

been made as an Indian fighter in the West, where 
he had defeated Tecumseh at the battle of Tippe- 
canoe, and by a successful campaign in the war of 
1812. Since then, he had been living quietly on his 
farm in Ohio, with no expectation of anything but 
passing his remaining years in quiet, for he was 
nearly seventy years of age. But Clay, with a sort 
of prophetic insight, picked him out as the Whig 
leader, and " Tippecanoe and Tyler Too '' became 
the rallying cry of a remarkable campaign, which 
swept the country from end to end and effectually 
swamped Van Buren. It was too strenuous for 
a man as old as Harrison, and he died at the 
White House within a month of taking the oath of 
office. 

The " Tyler Too '' was John Tyler, who had been 
elected Vice-President, and who assumed the office of 
President upon Harrison's death. His accession was 
little less than a bomb-shell to the party which had 
nominated him and secured his election. For he was 
a Virginian, a follower of Calhoun and an ardent pro- 
slavery man, while the Whigs were first, last and 
all the time anti-slavery. He had been placed on the 
ticket with Harrison, who was strongly anti-slavery, 
in the hope of securing the votes of some disaffected 
Democrats, but to see him President was the last 
thing the Whigs desired. The result was that he 
soon became involved in a bitter quarrel with Clay 
and the other leaders of the party, which effectually 
killed any chance of renomination he may have had. 
He became the mark for perhaps the most unre- 

115 



A Guide to BiogTapliy 

strained abuse ever aimed at a holder of the presi- 
dency. 

It was largely unmerited, for Tyler was a capable 
man, Lad seen service in Congress and as governor 
of his state; but he was dry and uninspiring, and not 
big enough for the presidency, into which he could 
never have come except by accident. His adminis- 
tration was marked by few important events except 
the annexation of Texas, which will be dealt with 
more particularly when we come to consider the lives 
of Sam Houston and the other men who brought the 
annexation about. He retired to private life at the 
close of his term, appearing briefly twenty years 
later as a member of a " congress " which endeavored 
to prevent the war between the states, and after- 
wards as a member of the Confederate Congress, in 
which he served until his death. 

Clay secured the Whig nomination for himself, in 
the campaign of 1844, and his opponent on the Dem- 
ocratic ticket was James Knox Polk, a native of 
ISTorth Carolina, but afterwards removing to Ten- 
nessee. He had been a member of Congress for four- 
teen years, and governor of Tennessee for three, and 
was a consistent exponent of Democratic principles. 
Two great questions were before the country: the an- 
nexation of Texas and the right to Oregon. Polk 
was for the immediate annexation of Texas and for 
the acquisition of Oregon up to 54° 40" north 
latitude, regardless of Great Britain's claims, and 
" Fifty-four forty or fight ! " became one of the bat- 
tle-cries of the campaign. Clay, inveterate trimmer 

116 



Wasliington to Lincoln 

and compromiser tliat he was, professed to be for the 
annexation of Texas, provided it could be accom- 
plished without war with Mexico, which was arrant 
nonsense, since Mexico had given notice that she 
would consider annexation an act of war. The result 
of Clay's attitude, and of a widespread distrust of his 
policies, was that Polk was elected bj a large major- 
ity. . _ . 

His administration was destined to be a brilliant 

one, for Texas was at once annexed, and the brief war 
with Mexico which followed, one of the most success- 
ful ever waged by any country, carried the south- 
western boundary of the United States to the Rio 
Grande, and added New Mexico and California to the 
national domain, while a treaty with England secured 
for the country the present great state of Oregon, 
although here Polk receded from his position and ac- 
cepted a compromise which confined Oregon below 
the forty-ninth parallel. But even this was some- 
thing of a triumph. With that triumph, the name 
of Marcus Whitman is most closely associated, 
through a brilliant but rather useless feat of his, of 
which we shall speak later on. Polk seems to have 
been an able and conscientious man, without any pre- 
tensions to genius — just a good, average man, hke 
any one of ten thousand other Americans. He re- 
fused a renomination because of ill-health, and died 
soon after retiring from office. 

The Democratic party had by this time become 
hopelessly disrupted over the slavery question, which 
had become more and more acute. The great strength 

117 



A Guide to Biography 

of the state rights party had always been in the South, 
and southern statesmen had always opposed any ag- 
gression on the part of the national government. The 
North, on the other hand, had always leaned more or 
less toward a strong centralization of power. So it 
followed that while the Democratic party was para- 
mount in the South, its opponents, by whatever name 
known, found their main strength in the North. 

Yet, even in the North, there was a strong Dem- 
ocratic element, and, but for the intrusion of the 
slavery question, the party would have controlled the 
government for many years to come. But the North 
was gi'adually coming to feel that the slavery ques- 
tion was more important than the more abstract one 
of national aggression; the more so since, by insisting 
upon the enforcement of such measures as the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law, the South was, as it were, keeping 
open and bleeding a wound which might to some ex- 
tent have healed. In 1848 the split came, and the 
Democratic party put two candidates in the field, 
Lewis Cass for the South, and Martin Van Buren for 
the North. 

The Whig Party, taking advantage of the knowl- 
edge gained in previous campaigns, looked around 
for a famous general, and managed to agree upon 
Zachary Taylor, who had made an exceedingly 
brilliant record in the war with Mexico. He was 
sixty-five years old at the time, a sturdy giant of a 
man, reared on the frontier, hardened by years of 
Indian warfare, whose nickname of " Old Rough and 
Ready '' was not a bad description. He caught the 

118 



Wasliington to Lincoln 

popular fancy, for lie possessed tliose qualities wliich 
appeal to the plain people, and this, assisted by the 
division in the ranks of his opponents, won him a 
majority of the electoral votes. He took the oath of 
office on March 4, 1849, but, after sixteen months of 
troubled administration, died suddenly on July 9, 
1850. 

Millard Fillmore, who had been elected Vice-Presi- 
dent, at once took the oath of office as chief execu- 
tive. He was a Kew York man, a lawyer, had been 
a member of Congress, and, as Vice-President, had 
presided over the bitter slavery debates in the Senate. 
His symj^athies were supposed to be anti-slavery, yet 
he signed the Fugitive Slave Law, when it was placed 
before him, much to the chagrin of many people who 
had voted for him. He signed his own political death- 
warrant at the same time, for, at the Whig IN^ational 
Convention in 1852, he was defeated for the nomina- 
tion for President, after a long struggle, by General 
Winfield Scott, another veteran of the Mexican war. 
Four years later, Fillmore, having managed to regain 
the confidence of his party, secured the Whig nomina- 
tion unanimously, but was defeated at the polls, and 
spent the remaining years of his life quietly at his 
home in Buffalo. 

Against General Scott, the Democrats nominated 
Franklin Scott Pierce, the nomination being in the 
nature of an accident, though Pierce was in every 
way a worthy candidate. His family record begins 
with his father, Benjamin Pierce, who, as a lad of 
seventeen, stirred by the tidings of the fight at Lex- 

119 



A Guide to Biography 

ington, left his home in Chehnsford, musket on 
shoulder, to join the patriot army before Boston. He 
settled in New Hampshire after the Revolution, and 
his son Franklin was born there in 1804. He fol- 
lowed the usual course of lawyer, congressman and 
senator, and served throughout the war with Mex- 
ico, rising to the rank of brigadier-general, and secur- 
ing a reputation second only to that of Scott and 
Taylor. 

At the Democratic convention of 1852, Pierce 
was not a candidate for the nomination, and did 
not know that any one intended to mention his 
name, or even thought of him in that connection. 
But the convention was unable to agree on a can- 
didate, and on the fourth day and thirty-third ballot, 
some delegate cast his vote for General Franklin 
Pierce, of ISTew Hampshire. The name attracted at- 
tention, Pierce's career had been distinguished and 
above reproach, other delegates voted for him, until, 
on the forty-ninth ballot, he was declared the unan- 
imous choice of the convention. His election was 
overwhelming, as he carried twenty-seven states out 
of thirty-one. 

Once in the presidential chair, however, this popu- 
larity gradually slipped away from him. He found 
himself in an impossible position, between two fires, 
for the slavery question was dividing the country 
more and more and there seemed no possible way 
to reconcile the warring sections. Pierce, perhaps, 
made the mistake of trying to placate both, instead 
of taking his stand firmly with one or the other; and 

120 



Wasliington to Lincoln 



'to 



the consequence was that at the convention of 1856, 
he received a few votes from courtesy, but was never 
seriously in the running, which resulted in the nomi- 
nation of James Buchanan. Pierce returned to his 
home in ISTew Hampshire, to find his friends and 
neighbors estranged from him by his supposed pro- 
slavery views, which had yet not been radical enough 
to win him the friendship of the South; but time 
changed all that, and his last years were spent in 
honored and opulent retirement. 

James Buchanan was, like Andrew Jackson, of 
Scotch-Irish descent, but there the resemblance be- 
tween the two ended, for Buchanan had little of 
Jackson's tremendous positiveness and strength of 
character. His disposition was always to com- 
promise, while Jackson's was to fight. !N^ow com- 
promise is often a very admirable thing, but where 
it shows itself to be impossible and leaves fighting 
the only resource, the wise man puts all thought of 
it behind him and prepares for battle. Which is 
precisely what Buchanan did not do. He had been 
a lawyer and congressman, minister to Russia, sen- 
ator, secretary of state and minister to England, and 
so had the widest possible political acquaintanceship; 
he was a man of somewhat unusual culture; but, 
alas ! he found that something more than culture was 
needed to guide him in the troublous times amid 
which he fell. I have often thought that Buchanan's 
greatest handicap was his wide friendship, which 
often made it almost impossible to say no, however 
much he may have wished to do so. An unknown 

121 



A Guide to Biograplij 

backwoodsman, like Andrew Jackson, witli no favors 
to return and no friendships to be remembered, could 
have acted far more effectively. 

Buchanan's opponent for the presidency w^as John 
C. Fremont, and there was a great stir and bustle 
among the people who were supposed to support 
him, but Buchanan won easily, and at once found 
himself in the midst of the most perplexing diffi- 
culties. Kansas was in a state of civil war; two 
days after his inauguration the Supreme Court 
handed down the famous Dred Scott decision, de- 
claring the right of any slave-holder to take his slaves 
as property into any territory; while the young Be- 
publican party was siding oj)enly with the abolition- 
ists, and, a very firebrand in a powder-house, in 1859, 
John Brown seized Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and 
attempted to start a slave insurrection. JSTow a 
slave insurrection was the one thing which the South 
feared more than any other — it was the terror which 
was ever present. And so John Brown's mad at- 
tempt excited a degree of hysteria almost unbeliev- 
able. 

Small wonder that Buchanan was soon at his wits' 
ends. His sympathies were with the slave-holders; 
he doubted his right to coerce a seceding state; his 
friendships were largely with southern statesmen — 
and yet, to his credit be it stated, on January 8, 
1860, after secession had become a thing assured, 
he seems suddenly to have seen his duty clearly, and 
in a special message, declared his intention to collect 
the revenues and protect public property in all the 

122 



Washington to Lincoln 

states, and to use force if necessary. Taken all in all, 
his attitude in those trying days was a creditable one 
— as creditable as could be expected from any aver- 
age man. AVhat the time needed was a genius, and 
fortunately one rose to the occasion. Buchanan, 
harried and despondent, must have breathed a deep 
sigh of relief when he surrendered the helm to the 
man who had been chosen to succeed him — the man, 
by some extraordinary chance, in all the land best 
fitted to steer the ship of state to safety — the man 
who was to be the dominant figure of the century 
in American history. 

SUMMARY 

Washingto:n', George. Born in Westmoreland 
County, Virginia, February 22 (old style, February 11), 
1732; sent on a mission to the French beyond the 
Alleghenies, 1753-54:; appointed lieutenant-colonel, 
1754; defeated by the French at Fort Necessity, July 
3, 1754:; aide-de-camp to Braddock, 1755; commanded 
on the frontier, 1755-57; led the advance-guard for 
the reduction of Fort Duquesne, 1758; married Martha 
Custis, January 9, 1759; delegate to Continental Con- 
gress, 1774-75; appointed commander-in-chief of the 
continental forces, June 15, 1775; assumed command 
of the army, July 3, 1775; compelled evacuation of 
Boston, March 17, 1776; defeated at battle of Long 
Island, August 27, 1776; defeated at White Plains, 
October 28, 1776; surprised the British at Trenton, 
December 26, 1776; won the battle of Princeton, Jan- 
uary, 1777; defeated at Brandywine and Germantown 
in 1777; at Valley Forge, during the winter of 1777- 

123 



A Guide to Biography 

78; won the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778; 
captured Yorktown and the army of Cornwallis, Oc- 
tober 19, 1781; resigned his commission as commander- 
in-chief, December 23, 1783; president of the Consti- 
tutional Convention, 1787 ; unanimously elected Presi- 
dent of the United States, January, 1789; inaugurated 
at New York, April 30, 1789; unanimously re-elected, 
1793; issued farewell address to the people, September, 
1796; retired to Mount Vernon, March, 1797; died 
there, December 14, 1799. 

Adams, John. Born at Braintree, now Quincy, 
Massachusetts, October 30, 1735; graduated at Har- 
vard, 1755; studied law, took a leading part in oppos- 
ing Stamp Act, was counsel for the British soldiers 
charged with murder in connection with the " Boston 
massacre " in 1770, and became a leader of the patriot 
party; member of Revolutionary Congress of Massa- 
chusetts, 177-1; delegate to first and second Continental 
Congress, 1774-75; commissioner to France, 1777; ne- 
gotiated treaties with the Netherlands, Great Britain 
and Prussia, 1782-83; minister to London, 1785-88; 
Federal Vice-President, 1789-97; President, 1797- 
1801; defeated for re-election and retired to Quincy, 
1801; died there, July 4, 1826. 

Jefferson, Thomas. Born at Shadwell, Albemarle 
County, Virginia, April 2, 1743; member of the Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses, 1769-75, and 1776-78, and 
of the Continental Congress, 1775-76; drafted Declara- 
tion of Independence, 1776; governor of Virginia, 
1779-81; member of Congress, 1783-84; minister to 
France, 1784-89; secretary of state, 1789-93; Vice- 
President, 1797-1801; President, 1801-09; died at 
Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia, July 4, 1826. 

124 



Washington to Lincoln 

Madison, James. Born at Port Conway, Virginia, 
March 16, 1751; graduated at Princeton, 1771; dele- 
gate to Congress, 1780-83, and to the Constitutional 
Convention, 1787; member of Congress, 1789-97; sec- 
retary of state, 1801-09; President, 1809-1817; died at 
Montpelier, Orange County, Virginia, June 28, 1836. 

Monroe, James. Born in Westmoreland County, 
Virginia, April 28, 1758; member of Virginia assembly, 
1782; member of Congress, 1783-86; United States 
senator, 1790-94; minister to France, 1794-96; gov- 
ernor of Virginia, 1799-1802; minister to Great Brit- 
ain, 1803-07; secretary of state, 1811-17; President, 
1817-25, an administration known as " the era of 
good feeling"; died at New York City, July 4, 1831. 

Adams, John Quincy. Born at Braintree, Massa- 
chusetts, July 11, 1767; graduated at Harvard, 1788; 
admitted to the bar, 1791 ; minister to the Netherlands, 
1794-97; and to Prussia, 1797-1801; United States 
senator, 1803-08; minister to Russia, 1809-14; minis- 
ter to England, 1815-17; secretary of state, 1817-25; 
President, 1825-29; member of Congress, 1831-48; 
died at Washington, February 23, 1848. 

Jackson, Andrew. Born at the Waxham settle- 
ment, North Carolina (?), March 15, 1767; member of 
Congress, 1796-97; United States senator, 1797-98; 
justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, 1798-1804; 
defeated the Creeks at Talladega, 1813, and at Horse- 
shoe Bend, 1814; captured Pensacola from the English, 
1814; won the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815; 
commanded against the Seminoles, 1817-18; governor 
of Florida, 1821; United States senator, 1823-25; de- 
feated for President by J. Q. Adams, 1824; President, 

125 



A Guide to Biography 

1829-37; died at the Hermitage, near Nashville, Ten- 
nessee, June 8, 1845. 

Van Buren, Martin. Born at Kinderhook, New- 
York, December 5, 1782; admitted to the bar, 1803; 
entered New York State Senate, 1812; United States 
senator, 1821-28; governor of New York, 1828-29; 
secretary of state, 1829-31; Vice-President, 1833-37; 
President, 1837-41; defeated for President, 1840, 1844, 
1848; died at Kinderhook, July 24, 1862. 

Harrison, William Henry. Born at Berkeley, 
Charles City County, Virginia, February 9, 1773; gov- 
ernor of Indiana Territory, 1801-13; won victory of 
Tippecanoe, 1811, and of the Thames, 1813; member of 
Congress, 1816-19; United States senator, 1825-28; 
minister to Colombia, 1828-29; defeated for Presi- 
dency, 1836 ; elected President in the " log-cabin and 
hard-cider" campaign, 1840; inaugurated, March 4, 
1841; died at Washington, April 4, 1841. 

Tyler^ John. Born at Greenway, Charles City 
County, Virginia, March 29, 1790; admitted to the bar, 
1809; member of Virginia legislature, 1811-16; mem- 
ber of Congress, 1816-21; governor of Virginia, 1825- 
27; United States senator, 1827-36; elected Vice- 
President, 1840, and succeeded to Presidency on tlie 
death of General Harrison, April 4, 1841; presi- 
dent of the peace convention of 1861, favored secession 
and served as member of the Confederate provisional 
Congress; died at Eichmond, Virginia, January 18, 
1862. 

Polk, James Knox. Born in Mecklenburg County, 
North Carolina, November 2, 1795; admitted to the 

126 



Washington to Lincoln 



'to 



bar, 1820; member of Congress, 1825-39; speaker of 

the House of Representatives, 1835-39; governor of 

Tennessee, 1839-41; President, 1845-19; died at 
Nashville, Tennessee, June 15, 1849. 

Taylor, Zachary. Born in Orange County, Vir- 
ginia, September 24, 1784; entered the army as first 
lieutenant, 1808; served in War of 1812, attaining rank 
of major; served in Black Hawk's war, 1832, with rank 
of colonel; defeated Seminole Indians, 1837; com- 
mander-in-chief of Florida, 1838 ; took command of the 
army in Texas, 1845 ; won battle of Palo Alto, May 8, 
1846, and that of Reseca de la Palma, May 9, 1846; 
captured Matamoras, May 18, and Monterey, Septem- 
ber 24, 1846; defeated Santa Anna at Buena Vista, 
February 22-23, 1847; appointed major-general, June 
29, 1846; elected President, 1848; inaugurated, March 
4, 1849 ; died at Washington, July 9, 1850. 

Fillmore, Millard. Born at Summer Hill, Cayuga 
County, New York, January 7, 1800; admitted to the 
bar, 1823; member of New York State legislature, 
1829-31; member of Congress, 1833-35, 1837-43; 
elected Vice-President, 1848, and succeeded to presi- 
dency on the death of Taylor, July 9, 1850; died at 
Buffalo, New York, March 8, 1874. 

Pierce, Franklin. Born at Hillsborough, New- 
Hampshire, November 23, 1804; member of Congress, 
1833-37; United States senator, 1837-42; served 
with distinction in Mexican war; President, 1853- 
57; died at Concord, New Hampshire, October 8, 
1869. 

Buchanan, James. Born at Stony Batter, Frank- 
lin County, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1791; member of 

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A Guide to Biography 

Congress, 1821-31; minister to Russia, 1831-33; 
United States senator, 1833-45; secretary of state, 
1845-49; minister to Great Britain, 1853-56; Presi- 
dent, 1857-61 ; died at Wheatland, Lancaster, Pennsyl- 
vania, June 1, 1868. 



128 ! 



CHAPTER IV 

LINCOLN AND HIS SUCCESSORS 

A^D so we have come down through, the years 
to Abraham Lincoln — that patient and gentle 
man whose memory ranks with Washington's as 
America's priceless heritage. A blessing and an 
inspiration — a mystery, too; an enigma among men, 
lonely and impressive; not fully understood nor un- 
derstandable to the depths of that great heart of 
his; not fully explainable, for what strange power 
was it lifted that ignorant, ill-bred, uncouth, back- 
woods boy to a station among the stars? 

Seldom has any man who started so low mounted 
so high. Abraham Lincoln's early life was of the 
most miserable description. His father, Thomas 
Lincoln, was a worthless rover; his mother, I^ancy 
Hanks, was of a " poor white " Virginia family with 
an unenviable record. His birthplace was a squalid 
log cabin in Washington County, Kentucky. His 
surroundings were such as are commonly encoun- 
tered in a coarse, low, ignorant, poverty-stricken 
family. His father was at the very bottom of the 
social scale, so ignorant he could scarcely write his 
name. His mother inherited the shiftlessness and 
carelessness which is part and parcel of " poor white." 

129 



A Guide to Biogi'apliy 

These things are incontestable, they must be looked 
in the face. And yet, in spite of them, in spite of 
such a handicap as few other great men even approx- 
imated, Abraham Lincoln emerged to be the leader 
of a race. 

In 1816, Thomas Lincoln decided he would re- 
move to Indiana. Abraham was at that time seven 
years old, and for a year after the removal, the 
family lived in what was called a " half-faced camp,'' 
fourteen feet square — that is to say, a covered shed 
of three sides, the fourth side being open to the 
weather. Then the family achieved the luxury of a 
cabin, but a cabin without floor or door or window. 
Amid this wretchedness, Lincoln's mother died, and 
was laid away in a rough coffin of slabs at the edge 
of the little clearing. Three months later, a passing 
preacher read the funeral service above the grave. 

Thomas Lincoln soon married again and, strangely 
enough, made a wise choice, for his new wife not 
only possessed furniture enough to fill a four-horse 
wagon, but, what was of more importance, was en- 
dowed with a thrifty and industrious temperament. 
That she should have consented to marry the ne'er- 
do-well is a mystery ; perhaps he was not without his 
redeeming virtues, after all. She made him put a 
floor and windows in his cabin, and she was a better 
mother to his children than their real one had ever 
been. For the first time, young Abraham got some 
idea of the comforts and decencies of life, and, as his 
step-mother put it, " began to look a little human." 
He was not an attractive object, even at best, for 

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Lincoln and His Successors 

lie was lanky and clumsy, with great hands and feet, 
and a skin prematurely wrinkled and shrivelled. By 
the time he was seventeen, he was six feet tall, and 
he soon added two more inches to his stature. I^eed- 
less to say, his clothes never caught up with him, 
but were always too small. 

His schooling was of the most meagre description; 
in fact, in his whole life, he went to school less than 
one year. Yet there soon awakened within the boy 
a trace of unusual spirit. He actually liked to read. 
He saw few books, but such as he could lay his hands 
on, he read over and over. That one fact alone set 
him apart at once from the other boys of his class. 
To them reading was an irksome labor. 

All this reading had its effect. He acquired a 
vocabulary. That is to say, instead of the few hun- 
dred words which were all the other boys knew by 
which to express their thoughts, he soon had twice 
as many; besides that, he soon got a reputation as 
a wit and story-teller, and his command of words 
made him fond of speechmaking. He resembled 
most boys in liking to " show off.'' He had learned, 
too, that there were comforts in the world which he 
need never look for in his father's house, and so, 
as soon as he was of age, he left that unattractive 
dwelling-place and struck out for himself, making a 
livelihood in various w^ays — by splitting rails, run- 
ning a river boat, managing a store, enlisting for 
the Black Hawk war — doing anything, in a word, 
that came to hand and would serve to put a little 
money in his pocket. He came to know a great many 

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A Guide to Biography 

people and so, in 1832, he proclaimed himself a can- 
didate for the state legislature for Sangamon County, 
Illinois, where he had made his home for some years. 
"No doubt to most people, his candidacy must have 
seemed in the nature of a joke, and though he 
stumped the county thoroughly and entertained the 
crowds with his stories and flashes of wit, he was 
defeated at the polls. 

That episode ended, he returned to store-keeping; 
but he had come to see that the law was the surest 
road to political preferment, and so he spent such 
leisure as he had in study, and in 1836 was admitted 
to the bar. As has been remarked before, the re- 
quirements for admission were anything but pro- 
hibitory, most lawyers sharing the oft-quoted opinion 
of Patrick Henry that the only way to learn law 
was to practise it. Lincoln decided to establish him- 
self at Springfield, opened an office there, and for 
the next twenty years, practised law with consider- 
able success, riding from one court to another, and 
gradually extending his circle of acquaintances. He 
even became prosperous enough to marry, and in 
1842, after a courtship of the most peculiar descrip- 
tion, married a Miss Mary Todd — a young woman 
somewhat above him in social station, and possessed 
of a sharp tongue and uncertain temper which often 
tried him severely. 

It was inevitable, of course, that he should become 
interested again in politics, and he threw in his for- 
tunes with the Whig Party, serving two or three 
terms in the state legislature and one in Congress., 

132 



Lincoln and His Successors 

All of this did much to temper and chasten his native 
coarseness and uncouthness, but he was still just an 
average lawyer and politician, with no evidence of 
greatness about him, and many evidences of com- 
monness. Then, suddenly, in 1858, he stood forth as 
a national figure, in a contest with one of the most 
noteworthy men in public life, Stephen A. Douglas. 

Douglas was an aggressive, tireless and brilliant 
political leader, the acknowledged head of the Dem- 
ocratic party, and had represented Illinois in the 
Senate for many years. He had a great ambition to 
be President, had missed the nomination in 1852 and 
1856, but was determined to secure it in 1860, and 
was carefully building to that end. His term as 
senator expired in 1858, and his re-election seemed 
essential to his success. Of his re-election he had no 
doubt, for Illinois had always been a Democratic 
state, though it was becoming somewhat divided in 
opinion. The southern part was largely pro-slavery, 
but the northern part, including the rapidly-growing 
city of Chicago, was inclined the other way. This 
division of opinion made Douglas's part an increas- 
ingly difficult one, for pro-slave and anti-slave senti- 
ment were as irreconcilable as fire and water. 

Lincoln, meanwhile, had been active in the forma- 
tion of the new Republican party in the state, had 
made a number of strong speeches, and, on June 
16, 1858, the Republican convention resolved that: 
" Hon. Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice 
for United States senator to fill the vacancy about 
to be created by the expiration of Mr. Douglas's term 

133 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

of office/' A montli later, Lincoln challenged 
Douglas to a series of joint debates. Douglas at 
once accepted, never doubting his ability to over- 
whelm his obscure ojiponent, and the famous duel 
began which was to rivet national attention and give 
Lincoln a national prominence. 

The challenge on Lincoln's part was a piece of 
superb generalship. In such a contest, he had every- 
thing to gain and nothing to lose. Whatever the 
result, the fact that he had crossed swords with so 
renowned a man as Stephen A. Douglas would give 
him a kind of reflected glory. But in addition to 
that, he had the better side of the question. His 
course was simjDle; he was seeking the support of 
anti-slavery people; Douglas's task was much more 
complex, for he wished to offend neither northern 
nor southern Democrats, and he soon found himself 
offending both. To carry water on both shoulders 
is always a risky thing to attempt, and Douglas soon 
found himself fettered by the awkward position he 
was forced to maintain; while Lincoln, free from 
any such handicap, could strike with all his strength. 

His stand from the first was a bold one — so bold 
that many of his followers regarded it with conster- 
nation and disapproval. In his speech accepting the 
nomination, he had said, " I believe this government 
cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. 
It will become all one thing or all the other," and 
he pursued this line of argument in the debates, 
alleging that the purpose of the pro-slavery men was 
to make slavery perpetual and universal, and point- 

134 



Lincoln and His Successors 

ing to recent history in proof of the assertion. When 
asked by Douglas whether he considered the negro 
his equal, he answered : " In the right to eat the 
bread which his own hand earns, he is my equal, and 
the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every 
living man." He was not an abolitionist, and de- 
clared more than once that he had " no purpose, 
directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution 
of slavery in the states where it exists," that he had 
" no lawful right to do so," but only to prohibit it 
in " any new country which is not already cursed 
with the actual presence of the evil." 

Even so skillful a debater as Douglas soon found 
himself hard put to it to answer Lincoln's argu- 
ments, without offending one or the other of the 
powerful factions whose support he must have to 
reach the presidency. At the beginning, his experi- 
ence and adroitness gave him an advantage, which, 
however, Lincoln's earnestness and directness soon 
overcame. Tens of thousands of people gathered to 
hear the debates, they were printed from end to end 
of the country, and Lincoln loomed larger than ever 
before the nation; but so far as the immediate result 
was concerned, Douglas was the victor, for the elec- 
tion gave him a majority of the legislature, and he 
was chosen to succeed himself in the Senate. 

Yet more than once he must have regretted that 
he had consented to cross swords with his lank op- 
ponent, for he had been forced into many an awk- 
ward corner. There is a popular tradition that the 
presidential nomination came to Lincoln unsought; 

135 



A Guide to Biography 

but this is anything but true. On the contrary, in 
those debates with Douglas, he was consciously lay- 
ing the foundation for his candidacy two years later. 
He used every effort to drive Douglas to admissions 
and statements which would tell against him in a 
presidential campaign, while he himself took a posi- 
tion which would insure his popularity with the 
Eepublican party. So his defeat at the time was of 
no great moment to him. 

He had gained an entrance to the national arena, 
and he took care to remain before the public. He 
made speeches in Ohio, in Kansas, and even in 'New 
York and throughout New England, everywhere 
making a powerful impression. To disunion and 
secession he referred only once or twice, for he per- 
ceived a truth which, even yet, some of us are re- 
luctant to admit: that every nation has a right to 
maintain by force, if it can, its own integrity, and 
that a portion of a nation may sometimes be justified 
in struggling for independent national existence. 
The whole justification of such a struggle lies in 
whether its cause and basis is right or wrong. So, 
beneath the question of disunion, was the question 
as to whether slavery was right or wrong. On this 
question, of course, northern opinion was practically 
all one way, while even in the South there were many 
enemies of the institution. The world was outgrow- 
ing what was really a sundval of the dark ages. 

When the campaign for the presidential nomina- 
tion opened in the winter of 1859-1860, Lincoln was 
early in the field and did everything possible to win 

136 



Lincoln and His Successors 

support. He secured the Illinois delegates without 
difficulty, and when the national convention met at 
Chicago, in May, the contest soon narrowed down 
to one between Lincoln and William H. Seward. 
Let it be said, at once, that Seward deserved the 
nomination, if high service and party loyalty and 
distinguished ability counted for anything, and it 
looked for a time as though he were going to get it, 
for on the first ballot he received 71 more votes 
than Lincoln. But in the course of his public career he 
had made enemies who were anxious for his defeat, his 
campaign managers were too confident or too clumsy 
to take advantage of opportunity; Lincoln's friends 
were busy, and by some expert trading, of which, b© 
it said in justice to Lincoln, he himself was ignorant, 
succeeded in securing for him a majority of the votes 
on the third ballot. 

So, blindly and almost by chance, was the nomina- 
tion secured of the one man fitted to meet the crisis. 
The only other event in American history to be com- 
pared with it in sheer wisdom was the selection of 
Washington to head the Revolutionary army — a selec- 
tion made primarily, not because of Washington's 
fitness for the task, but to heal sectional differences 
and win the support of the South to a war waged 
largely in the iNorth. 

The nomination, so curiously made, was received 
with anything but enthusiasm by the country at 
large. " Honest Abe, the Rail-Splitter," might ap- 
peal to some, but there was a general doubt whether, 
after all, rail-splitting, however honorable in itself, 

137 



A Guide to Biography 

was the best training for a President. However, the 
anti-slavery feeling was a tie that bound together 
people of the most diverse opinions about other 
things, and a spirited canvass was made, greatly 
assisted by the final and suicidal split in the ranks 
of the Democracy, which placed in nomination two 
men, Lincoln's old antagonist, Stephen A. Douglas, 
representing the northern or moderate element of 
the party, and John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, 
representing the southern, or extreme pro-slavery 
element. And this was just the corner into which 
Lincoln had hoped, all along, to drive his opponents. 
Llad the party been united, he would have been 
hopelessly defeated, for in the election which fol- 
lowed, he received only a little more than one third 
of the popular vote; but this was sufficient to give 
him the northern states, with 180 electoral votes. 
But let us remember that, in 1860, Abraham Lin- 
coln was the choice for President of very much less 
than half the people of the country. 

The succeeding four months witnessed the peculiar 
spectacle of the South leisurely completing its ar- 
rangements for secession, and perfecting its civil and 
military organization, while the ]^orth, under a dis- 
credited ruler of whom it could not rid itself until 
March 4th, was unable to make any counter-prepar- 
ation or to do anything to prevent the diversion 
of a large portion of the arms and munitions of 
the country into the southei*n states. It gave the 
southern leaders, too, opportunity to work upon the 
feelings of their people, more than half of whom, in 

138 



Lincoln and His Successors 

the fall of 1860, were opposed to disunion. It 
should not be forgotten that, however fully the 
South came afterwards to acquiesce in the policy of 
secession, it was, in its inception, a plan of the poli- 
ticians, undertaken, to a great extent, for purposes 
of self-aggrandizement. They controlled the con- 
ventions which, in every case except that of Texas, 
decided whether or not the state should secede. " We 
can make better terms out of the Union than in it," 
was a favorite argument, and many of them dreamed 
of the establishment of a great slave empire, in which 
they would play the leading parts. 

To the southern leaders, then, the election of Lin- 
coln was the striking of the appointed hour for 
rebellion. South Carolina led the way, declaring, 
on December 17, 1860, that the " Union now sub- 
sisting between South Carolina and other states, 
under the name of the United States of America, is 
hereby dissolved.'^ Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, 
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas followed. Opinion 
at the North was divided as to the proper course to 
follow. Horace Greeley, in the 'New York Tribune, 
said that the South had as good a right to secede 
from the Union as the colonies had to secede from 
Great Britain, and, as Greeley afterwards observed, 
the Tribune had plenty of company in these senti- 
ments. Meanwhile the Southern Confederacy had 
been formed, Jefferson Davis elected President, and 
steps taken at once for the organization of an army. 

Everyone was waiting anxiously for the inaugura- 
tion of the new President — waiting to see what his 

139 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

course would be. They were not left long in doubt. 
His inaugural address was earnest and direct. He 
said, " The union of these States is perpetual, ^o 
State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out 
of the Union. I shall take care that the laws of the 
Union are faithfully executed in all the States." It 
was, in effect, a declaration of war, and was so re- 
ceived by the South. Whether or not it was the 
constitutional attitude need not concern us now. 

The story of Lincoln's life for the next five years 
is the story of the Civil War. How Lincoln grew 
and broadened in those fateful years, how he won 
men by his deep humanity, his complete understand- 
ing, his ready sympathy; how, once having under- 
taken the task of conquering rebellion, he never 
faltered nor turned back despite the awful sacrifices 
which the conflict demanded; all this has passed into 
the commonplaces of history. 'No man ever had a 
harder task, and no other man could have accom- 
plished it so w^ell. 

The emancipation of the slaves, which has loomed 
so large in history, was in reality, merely an incident, 
a war measure, taken to weaken the enemy and 
justifiable, perhaps, only on that ground ; the prelim- 
inary proclamation, indeed, proposed to liberate the 
slaves only in such states as were in rebellion on the 
following first of January. Nor did emancipation 
create any great popular enthusiasm. The congres- 
sional elections which followed it showed a great 
reaction against anti-slavery. The Democrats car- 
ried Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois. For 

140 




LINCOLN 



Lincoln and His Successors 

a time the administration was fighting for its life, 
and won by an alarmingly small margin. 

Before the year had elapsed, however, there was 
a great reversal in public opinion, and at the suc- 
ceeding election, Lincoln received 212 out of 233 
electoral votes. The end of the Confederacy was 
by this time in sight. A month after his second 
inauguration, Richmond fell, and five days later, Lee 
surrendered his army to General Grant. Lincoln at 
once paid a visit to Richmond and then returned to 
Washing-ton for the last act of the drama. 

The fourteenth of April was Good Friday, and 
the President arranged to take a small party to 
Ford's theatre to witness a performance of a farce 
comedy called " Our American Cousin.'' The Presi- 
dent entered his box about nine o'clock and was 
given a tumultuous reception. Then the play went 
forward quietly, until suddenly the audience was 
startled by a pistol shot, followed by a woman's 
scream. At the same instant, a man was seen to 
leap from the President's box to the stage. Paus- 
ing only to wave a dagger which he carried in his 
hand and to shout, " Sic semper tyrannis ! " the man 
disappeared behind the scenes. Amid the confusion, 
no efficient pursuit was made. The President had 
been shot through the head, the bullet passing 
through the brain. Unconsciousness, of course, came 
instantly, and death followed in a few hours. 

Eleven days later, the murderer, an actor by the 
name of John Wilkes Booth, was surrounded in a 
barn where he had taken refuge ; he refused to come 

141 



A Guide to Biography 

out, and the barn was set on fire. Soon afterwards, 
the assassin was brought forth with a bullet at the 
base of his brain, whether fired by himself or one of 
the besieging soldiers was never certainly known. 

It is startling to contemplate the fearful respon- 
sibility wdiich Booth assumed when he fired that shot. 
So far from benefiting the South, he did it incalcul- 
able harm, for the I^orth w^as thoroughly aroused 
by the deed. Thousands and thousands flocked to 
see the dead President as he lay in state at the 
Capitol, and in the larger cities in which his funeral 
procession paused on its way to his home in Spring- 
field. The whole country was in mourning, as for 
its father; business was practically suspended, and 
the people seemed stunned by the great calamity. 
That so gentle a man should have been murdered 
wakened, deep down in the heart of the ISTorth, a 
fierce resentment; the feelings of kindliness for a 
Tanquished foe were, for the moment, swept away 
in anger; and the North turned upon the South with 
stern face and shining eyes. The wild and foolish 
assassin brought down upon the heads of his own 
people such a wrath as the great conflict had not 
awakened. We shall see how bitter was the retribu- 
tion. 

]^ot then so fully as now was Lincoln's greatness 
understood. He has come to personify for us the 
triumphs and glories, the sadness and the pathos, 
of the great struggle which he guided. His final 
martyrdom seems almost a fitting crown for his 
achievements. It has, without doubt, done much to 

142 



Lincoln and His Successors 

secure him the exalted niche which he occupies in 
the hearts of the American people, whom, in a way, 
he died to save. Had he lived through the troubled 
period of Reconstruction which followed, he might 
have emerged with a fame less clear and shining; 
and yet the hand which guided the country through 
four vears of Civil War, was without doubt the one 
best fitted to save it from the misery and disgrace 
which lay in store for it. But speculations as to what 
might have been are vain and idle. What was, we 
know; and above the clouds of conflict, Lincoln's 
figure looms, serene and venerable. Two of his 
own utterances reveal him as the words of no other 
man can — ^liis address on the battlefield of Gettys- 
burg, and his address at his second inauguration — 
but two months after he was laid to rest, James 
Russell Lowell, at the services in commemoration of 
the three hundredth anniversary of Harvard College, 
paid him one of the most eloquent tributes ever paid 
any man, concluding with the words: 

" Great captains, with their guns and drums, 

Disturb our judgment for the hour, 
But at last silence comes; 

These all are gone, and, standing like a tower, 
Our children shall behold his fame, 

The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, 
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, 

New birth of our new soil, the first American." 

On the ticket with Lincoln, the Republicans had 
placed, as a sop to such pro-slavery sentiment as still 
existed at the ]N"orth, a southerner and state rights 

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A Guide to Biography 

Democrat named Andrew Johnson. By one of those 
singular chances of history, Johnson's origin and 
early years had been very much like Lincoln's. He, 
too, was born of a " poor white " family ; first seeing 
the light in l^orth Carolina about six weeks before 
Abraham Lincoln opened his eyes in that rude log 
cabin in Kentucky. His condition was, if anything, 
even more hopeless and degraded than Lincoln's, and 
if any one had prophesied that these two ignorant 
and poverty-stricken children would one day rise, 
side by side, to the greatest position in the Bepublic, 
he would have been regarded, and justly, as a hope- 
less madman. But not even to a madman did any 
such wild idea occur. ^' Poor whites " were despised 
throughout the South, even by the slaves; if there 
was, in the whole United States, any law of caste, 
it was against these ignorant and shiftless people; 
and Andrew Johnson, at the age of fifteen, was little 
better than a young savage. He had never gone to 
school, he had never seen a book. But one day, he 
heard a man reading aloud, and the wonder of it 
quickened a new purpose within him. He induced 
a friend to teach him the alphabet, and then, borrow- 
ing the book, he laboriously taught himself to read. 
So there was something more than " poor white " in 
him, after all. 

By the time he was eighteen, he had had enough 
of his shiftless surroundings, and struck out for him- 
self, journeyed across the mountains to Greenville, 
Tennessee, met there a girl of sixteen named Eliza 
McCardle, and, with youth's sublime improvidence, 

144 



Lincoln and His Successors 

married her! As it happened, he did well, for his 
wife had a fair education, and night after night 
taught him patiently, until he could read fairly well 
and write a little. I like to think of that family group, 
so different from most, and to admire that girl-wife 
teaching her husband the rudiments of education. 

Already, as a result of his lowly birth and the class 
prejudice he everywhere encountered, young John- 
son had conceived that hatred of the ruling class at 
the South which was to influence his after life so 
deeply. He had a certain rude eloquence which 
appealed to the lower classes of the people, and, in 
1835, succeeded in gaining an election to the state 
legislature. He nursed his political prospects care- 
fully, and eight years later, was sent to Congress. 
He was afterwards twice governor of Tennessee. 

It has been said that secession was, in the begin- 
ning, a policy of the ruling class in the South and 
not of the people. It is not surprising, then, that 
Johnson should have arrayed himself against it, and 
fought it with all his might. This position made him 
so prominent, that on March 4, 1862, Lincoln ap- 
pointed him military-governor of Tennessee — a posi- 
tion which was exactly to Johnson's taste and which 
he filled well. In this position, he seemed the em- 
bodiment of the Union element of the South, and at 
their national convention in 1864, the Republicans 
decided that the President's policy of reconstruction 
for the South would be greatly aided by the presence 
of a southern man on the ticket, and Johnson was 
thereupon chosen for the office of Vice-President. 

145 



A Guide to Biography 

On the same day that Lincoln was inaugurated for 
the second time, Johnson took the oath of office in 
the Senate chamber, and delivered a speech which 
created a sensation. He declared, in effect, that 
Tennessee had never been out of the Union, that she 
was electing representatives who would soon mingle 
with their brothers from the North at Washington, 
and that she was entitled to every privilege which 
the northern states enjoyed. 

Three hours after the death of the President, 
Andrew Johnson took the oath of office as his suc- 
cessor, but he was regarded with suspicion at both 
IsTorth and South — at the K^orth, because he was be- 
lieved to be at heart pro-slavery; at the South because 
of his well-known animosity toward the aristocratic 
and ruling class. He was also known to be stubborn, 
high-tempered and intemperate, and he and Congress 
were soon at sword's point. Johnson was of the 
opinion that the question of suffrage for the negroes 
should be left to the several states; a majority of 
Congress were determined to exact this for their own 
protection. This was embodied in the so-called Civil 
Rights Bill, conferring citizenship upon colored men. 
It was promptly vetoed by the President, and was 
passed over his veto; soon afterwards the fourteenth 
amendment was passed, conferring the suffrage upon 
all citizens of the United States without regard to 
color or previous condition of servitude. It also 
was vetoed, and passed over the veto. Johnson was 
hailed as a traitor by Republicans, and the cam- 
paign against him culminated in his impeachment by 

146 



Lincoln and His Successors 

Congress early in 1868. Tlie trial which followed 
was the most bitter in the history of the Senate, but 
Andrew Johnson was acquitted by the failure of the 
prosecution to secure the two-thirds vote necessary 
for conviction by a single vote, thirty-five senators 
voting for conviction and nineteen for acquittal. 

Johnson's friends were jubilant, but his power had 
vanished. The seceded states one by one came back 
into the Union in accordance with the Reconstruc- 
tion act which Johnson had vetoed. He failed of 
the nomination on the Democratic ticket, and after 
the inauguration of his successor, at once returned to 
his old home in Tennessee. There he attempted to 
secure the nomination for United States senator, but 
his influence was gone and he was defeated. So 
ended his public life. 

It has been rather the fashion to picture Johnson 
as an intemperate and bull-headed ignoramus, but 
such a characterization is far from fair. But for 
Lincoln's assassination, some such policy of recon- 
struction as Johnson advocated would probably have 
been carried out, instead of the policy of fanatics 
like Thaddeus Stevens, which left the South a prey 
to the carpet-bagger and the ignorant negro for over 
a decade. Johnson himself might have accomplished 
more if he had been of a less violent disposition; but 
he was ignorant of diplomacy, incapable of compro- 
mise, and so was worsted in the fight. However we 
may disagree with his policy and dislike his char- 
acter, let us at least not forget that picture of the 
" poor white " boy teaching himself to read, and that 

147 



A Guide to Biography 

other of the girl-wife patiently instructing him in 
the rudiments of writing. 

A successful war inevitably gives to its com- 
manders a tremendous popular prestige. We have 
seen how the battle of l^ew Orleans made Andrew 
Jackson a national hero, how William Henry Harri- 
son loomed large after the battle of Tippecanoe, and 
how Zachary Taylor was chosen President as a result 
of his victories in Mexico. The country was now to 
undergo another period of military domination, 
longer lived than those others, as the Civil War was 
greater than them — a period from which it has even 
yet not fully recovered. 

In 1868, the Republican party nominated unani- 
mously for President the general who had pushed 
the war to a successful finish, and who had received 
Lee's surrender, Ulysses Simpson Grant, and he was 
elected by an overwhelming majority. For the first 
time in the history of the country, a man had been 
elected President without regard to his qualifica- 
tions for the office, for even Jackson had had many 
years' experience in public affairs. Of such qualifi- 
cations. Grant had very few. He was egotistical, a 
poor judge of men, without experience in statesman- 
ship, and unwilling to submit to guidance. As a 
result, his administration was marked by inefficiency 
and extravagance, and ended in a swirl of scandal. 

Born in Ohio in 1822, and graduated at West 
Point, he had served through the war with Mexico, 
resigned from the army, remained in obscurity for 

148 



Lincoln and His Successors 

six years, during wliicli lie made an unsuccessful at- 
tempt to support himself in civil life, and entered 
the army again at the outbreak of the Civil War. 
From the first he was successful more than any other 
of the Union generals, not so much because of mili- 
tary genius as from a certain tenacity of purpose 
with which he fairly wore out the enemy. But a 
people discouraged by reverses were not disposed to 
inquire too closely into the reason of his victories, 
and early in 1864, after a brilliant campaign along 
the Mississippi, he had been appointed commander- 
in-chief of the Union army, and began that series 
of operations against Richmond which cost the North 
so dear, but which resulted in the fall of the capital 
of the Confederacy and in Lee's surrender. 

A bearded, square-jawed, silent man, he caught 
the public fancy by two messages, the one of " Un- 
conditional surrender,'' with which he had answered 
the demand for terms on the part of the Confederates 
whom he had entrapped in Fort Donelson; the other, 
the famous : " I propose to fight it out on this line, 
if it takes all summer," with which he started his 
campaign in the Wilderness. Both were character- 
istic, and if Grant had retired from public life at 
the close of the Civil War, or had been content to 
remain commander-in-chief of the army of the United 
States, his fame would probably have been brighter 
than it is to-day. 

His training, such as it was, had been wholly 
military and his inaugural address showed his pro- 
found ignorance of the work which lay before him 

149 



A Guide to Biography 

— an ignorance all the more profound and unreach- 
able because of his serene unconsciousness of it. He 
fell at once an easy prey to political demagogues, 
and before the close of his first administration, de- 
moralization was widespread throughout the govern- 
ment. A large portion of the Republican party, 
realizing his unfitness for the office, opposed his re- 
nomination, and when they saw his nomination was 
inevitable, broke away and named a ticket of their 
own, but Grant's victory was a sweeping one. 

With this stamp of public approval, the boodlers 
became bolder and great scandals followed, involv- 
ing many members of Congress and even some mem- 
bers of the cabinet, but not the President himself, of 
whose personal honesty there was never any doubt, 
and in 1873, came the worst panic the country had 
ever experienced. A political reaction followed, and 
in 1874 the Democrats carried the country, gain- 
ing the House of Representatives by a majority of 
nearly a hundred. 

Following his retirement from office in 1877, 
Grant made a tour of the world, returning in 1879, 
to be again a candidate for the presidency, and com- 
ing very near to getting the nomination. It w^as char- 
acteristic of the man's egotism that, even yet, he did 
not realize his unfitness for the office, but thought 
himself great enough to disregard the precedent 
which Washington had established. He lived five 
years longer, the last years of his life rendered miser- 
able by cancer of the throat, which finally killed him. 

In the summer of 1876, the Republicans nominated 

150 



Lincoln and His Successors 

Rutherford B. Hayes, at that time Governor of Ohio, 
as their candidate for President — a nomination which 
was a surprise to the country, which had confidently 
expected that of James G. Blaine. Hayes was by 
no means a national figure, although he had served 
in the Union army, had been in Congress, and, as 
has been said, was governor of Ohio at the time of 
his nomination. !N^or was he a man of more than 
very ordinary ability, upright, honest, and mediocre. 
The Democratic candidate was Samuel J. Tilden, a 
political star of the first magnitude, and the contest 
which followed was unprecedented in American 
history. 

Tilden received a popular majority of half a 
million votes, and 184 electoral votes, out of the 185 
necessary to elect, without counting the votes from 
Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana, all of which 
he had carried on the face of the returns. The Re- 
publicans disputed the vote in these states, however, 
and by the inexorable use of party machinery and 
carpet-bag government, declared Hayes elected. For 
a time, so manifest was the partisan bias of this 
decision, the country seemed on the verge of another 
Civil War, but Tilden led in wiser council, and Hayes 
was permitted to take his seat. It is the only in- 
stance in a national election where the will of the 
people at the polls has been defied and overridden. 

Hayes was a sincere and honest man, and he felt 
keenly the cloud which the manner of his election 
cast over his administration. He was never popular 
with his party, and no doubt he felt that the debt 

151 



A Guide to Biograplij 

he owed it for getting him his seat was a doubtful 
one. His administration was noteworthy principally 
because he destroyed the last vestiges of carpet-bag 
government in the South, and left the southern 
states to work out their own destiny unhampered. 
He was not even considered for a renomination, and 
spent the remainder of his life quietly in his Ohio 
home. 

Hayes's successor was another so-called " dark 
horse/' that is, a man of minor importance, whose 
nomination was due to the fact that the party leaders 
could not agree upon any of the more prominent 
candidates. They were Grant, Blaine and John 
Sherman, and after thirty-five ballots, it was evident 
that a " dark horse " must be found. The choice fell 
upon James Abram Garfield, who was not prominent 
enough to have made any enemies, and who was as 
astonished as was the country at large when it heard 
the news. 

Garfield was born in Ohio in 1831, in a little log 
cabin and to a position in the world not greatly 
different to Lincoln's. While laboring at various 
rough trades, he succeeded in preparing himself for 
college, worked his way through, got into politics, 
served through the Civil War, and later for eighteen 
years in Congress, where he made a creditable but 
by no means brilliant record. He was elected Presi- 
dent by a small majority, and enraged the many 
enemies of James G. Blaine by selecting that astute 
politician as his secretary of state. One of these, 
a rattle-brained New Yorker named Charles J. 

152 



Lincoln and His Successors 

Guiteau, approached the President on July 2, 1881, 
as he was waiting at a railroad station in Washing- 
ton, about to start on a journey, and shot him 
through the body. Death followed, after a painful 
struggle, two months later. 

Obscure, in a sense, as Garfield had been, the 
man who succeeded him was immeasurably more so. 
Chester Alan Arthur was a successful ISTew York 
lawyer, who had dabbled in politics and held some 
minor appointive oflaces, his selection as Vice-Presi- 
dent being due to the desire of the Republican man- 
agers to throw a sop to the Empire State. His ad- 
ministration, however, while marked by no great or 
stirring event, was for the most part wise and con- 
servative, but James G* Blaine had by this time 
secured complete control of the party, and Arthur 
had no chance for the nomination for President. 
He died of apoplexy within two years of his retire- 
ment. 

The Republican party had been supreme in the 
national government for a quarter of a century, 
and there seemed no reason to doubt that Blaine, 
its candidate in the campaign of 1884, would at last 
realize his consuming ambition to be elected Presi- 
dent. He had an immense personal prestige, he had 
outlived the taint of corruption attached to him 
during the administration of Grant, and he had for 
years been preparing and strengthening himself for 
this contest. So he entered it confidently. 

But a new issue had arisen — that of the protective 

153 



A Guide to Biography 

tariff, wliicli, originally a war revenue measure, had 
been formally adopted as a princij)le of Republican- 
ism, which was hailed by its adherents as a new and 
brilliant economic device for enriching everybody 
at nobody's expense, and which had really enriched 
a few at the expense of the many. The Democrats, 
with considerable hesitation and ambiguity, pro- 
nounced against it, arraigned the Republican party 
for corruption, and named as their nominee Grover 
Cleveland, of ISTew York. 

Cleveland was born in New Jersey in 1837, the 
son of a clergyman whose early death threw him 
upon his own resources. He started west in search 
of employment, stopped at Buffalo, and afterwards 
made it his home. He studied law while working 
as a clerk and cop;)dst, was admitted to the bar in 
1859, and in the late seventies was elected mayor 
of Buffalo on a reform ticket. Almost at once, the 
country's eyes were fastened upon him. Elected as 
a reform mayor, he continued to be one after his 
induction into office. He actually seemed to think 
that the promises and pledges made by him during 
his campaign were still binding upon him, and 
astounded the politicians by proceeding to carry 
those promises out. So scathing were the veto mes- 
sages he sent in, one after another, to a corrupt 
council, that they awakened admiration and respect 
even among his opponents. The messages, written 
in the plainest of plain English, aroused the people 
of the city to the way in which they had been robbed 
by dishonest officials, they rallied behind him, and 

154 



Lincoln and His Successors 

liis reputation was made. In 1882, his party wanted 
a reform candidate for governor, and they naturally 
turned to Cleveland, and he was elected by a plural- 
ity of two hundred thousand. 

He found the same condition of things on a larger 
scale at Albany as at Buffalo — a corrupt machine 
paying political debts with public money — and here, 
again, he showed the same astonishing regard for 
pre-election pledges, the same belief in his famous 
declaration that " a public office is a public trust," 
and bill after bill was vetoed, while the people ap- 
plauded. And with every veto came a message stat- 
ing its reasons in language which did not mince 
words and which all could understand. He showed 
himself not only to be entirely beyond the control 
of the political machine of his own party, but also 
to possess remarkable moral courage, and he became 
naturally and inevitably the Democratic candidate 
for President, since the Democratic platform was 
in the main an arraignment of Republican corrup- 
tion and moral decay. The campaign which followed 
was a bitter one; but Blaine had estranged a large 
portion of his party, he made a number of bad 
blunders, and Cleveland was elected. The old 
party founded by Jefferson, which, beginning with 
Jefferson's administration, had ruled the country un- 
interruptedly for forty years, w^as returned to power, 
and on an issue which would have delighted Jeffer- 
son's heart. 

Much to the dismay and disappointment of the 
politicians, the new President made no clean sweep 

155 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

of Republican officeliolders. He took the unheard- 
of ground that, in the public service, as in any 
other, good work merited advancement, no matter 
what the politics of the individual might be. He 
made some changes, as a matter of course, but he 
was from the first sturdily in favor of civil service 
reform. It is worth remarking that a Democratic 
President was the first to take a decided stand against 
the principle of " to the victors belong the spoils,'' 
first put into practice by another Democratic Presi- 
dent, Andrew Jackson, over fifty years before. 

His stand, too, on the pension question was star- 
tling in its audacity. The shadow of the Civil War 
still hung over the country; the soldiers who had 
served in that war had formed themselves into a 
great, semi-political organization, known as the 
Grand Army of the Pepublic, and worked unceas- 
ingly for increased pensions, which Congress had 
found itself unable to refuse. More than that, the 
members of Congress were in the habit of passing 
hundreds of special bills, giving pensions to men 
whose claims had been rejected by the pension de- 
partment, as not coming within the law. Cleveland 
took the stand that, unless the soldier had been dis- 
abled by the war, he had no just claim to government 
support, and he vetoed scores of private pension bills, 
many of which were sho^\'n to be fraudulent. 

In other ways, his remarkable strength of per- 
sonality soon became apparent, and his determina- 
tion to do what he thought his duty, regardless of 
consequences. His message of December, 1887, 

156 



Lincoln and His Successors 

fairly startled the country. It was devoted entirely 
to a denunciation of tlie liigli tariff laws, a subject 
on whicli the Democratic leaders had deemed it pru- 
dent to maintain a discreet silence since the preceding 
election, and which many of them hoped would be 
forgotten by the public. But Cleveland's message 
brought the question squarely to the front, and 
made it the one issue of the campaign which fol- 
lowed. Cleveland Avould have been elected but for 
the traitorous conduct of the leaders in New York, 
who had never forgiven him for the way in which, 
as governor, he had scourged them. N^ew York 
State was lost to him, and his opponent, Benjamin 
Harrison, was elected, although his popular vote fell 
below that of Cleveland by over a hundred thousand. 
But Cleveland had his revenge four years later, 
when, in spite of the protests of the leaders from his 
own state of New York, he was again nominated 
on a platform denouncing the tariff, and defeated 
Harrison by an overwhelming majority. And now 
came one of those strange instances of party perfidy 
and party suicide, of which the country has just wit- 
nessed a second example. In accordance with the 
platform pledges, a bill to lower the tariff was at 
once framed in the House and adopted; but the 
Senate, although Democratic in complexion, so 
altered it that it fell far short of carrying out the 
party pledges. The leader in the Senate was Arthur 
P. Gorman, of Maryland, and to him chiefly was 
due this act of treachery. The President refused to 
sign the bill, and it became a law without his signa- 

157 



A Guide to Biography 

ture. There can be little question that it was the 
failure of the Democratic party to fulfil its pledges 
at that critical time which led to its subsequent dis- 
ruption and defeat. 

Twice more did Cleveland startle the country with 
his extraordinary decision of character. In the sum- 
mer of 1894, a great railroad strike, centering at 
Chicago, occasioned an outbreak of violence, which 
the governor of Illinois did nothing to quell. The 
President, therefore, declaring that the rioters had 
no right to interfere with the United States mails, 
ordered national troops to the scene to maintain 
order. A year later, when the British Government, 
involved in a boundary dispute with Venezuela, de- 
clared that it did not accept the Monroe Doctrine 
and would not submit the dispute to arbitration, the 
President sent a message to Congress, declaring that 
the Monroe Doctrine must be upheld at whatever 
cost. The country was thrilled from end to end, the 
President's course approved, and Great Britain at 
last consented to arbitration. 

And yet, when Cleveland left the presidential 
chair for the second time, he had entirely lost con- 
trol of and sympathy with his own party. He had 
shown little tact in his dealings with the party lead- 
ers. He seemed to forget that, after all, these lead- 
ers had certain rights and privileges which should 
be respected; he sometimes blundered through very 
anxiety to be right. You have heard some men 
called so upright that they leaned over backward — 
well, that, occasionally, was Cleveland's fault. He 

158 




CLEVELAND 



Lincoln and His Successors 

was subjected to such a storm of abuse as no other 
ex-President ever had to endure. That he felt it 
keenly there can be no question; but in the years 
which followed, his sturdy and unassailable char- 
acter came to be recognized and appreciated, and his 
death, in the summer of 1908, was the occasion of 
deep and widespread sorrow. 

We have told how, in 1888, Cleveland was de- 
feated for the presidency by Benjamin Harrison. 
Harrison was a grandson of the old warrior of Tip- 
pecanoe, William Henry Harrison, the successful 
candidate of the Whig party forty-eight years before. 
He was an able but not brilliant man, had served 
through the Civil War, and was afterwards elected 
senator from Indiana, to which state he had re- 
moved from Ohio at an early age. The platform 
on which he was elected pledged the party to the 
protective tariff principle, and a high tariff meas- 
ure, known as the McKinley Bill, was passed, rais- 
ing duties to a point higher than had ever before 
been known in the history of the United States. 

The Dependent Pension Bill, which Cleveland had 
vetoed, and which gave a pension to every Union 
soldier who was from any cause unable to earn a 
living, was also passed. But these policies did not 
appeal to the public; besides which, Harrison, al- 
though a man of integrity and ability, was popular 
with neither the rank nor file of his party, through 
a total lack of personal magnetism, and though he 
received the nomination, Cleveland easily defeated 

159 



A Guide to Biography 

him. The remainder of his life was passed quietly at 
his Indiana home. 



"VVe have seen how Cleveland's independence and 
want of tact estranged him from his party, and the 
party itself was soon to run upon virtual shipwreck, 
under the guidance of strange leaders. A word must 
be said, in this place, of the extraordinary man 
who led it three times to defeat. 

When the Democratic national convention met 
in Chicago in 189G, one of the delegates from 
ISTebraska was a brilliant and eloquent lawyer named 
William Jennings Bryan. He had gained some 
prominence in his state, and had served in Congress 
for four years, but he was practically unlvnown 
when he arose before the convention and made a 
free-silver speech which fairly carried the dele- 
gates off their feet. Good oratory is rare at any 
time; its power can hardly be overestimated, es- 
pecially in swaying a crowd; and Bryan was one 
of the greatest orators that ever addressed a con- 
vention. 

His nomination for the Presidency followed, and 
the result was the practical dismemberment of the 
Democratic party. For Bryan was a Populist, as far 
as possible removed from the fundamental principles 
of Democrac}^, advocating strange socialistic meas- 
ures; and the conservative element of the party re- 
garded him and his theories with such distrust that it 
put another ticket in the field, and he was badly 
beaten. Twice more he led the party in presidential 

160 



Lincoln and His Successors 

campaigns, each time being defeated more decisively 
than the last. His engaging personality, his ready 
oratory, and his supreme gifts as a politician won for 
him a vast number of devoted friends, who believed, 
and who still believe, in him absolutely; but the 
country at large, ajoparently, will have none of him. 

The Republican nominee in 1896 was William 
McKinley, of Ohio, best known as the framer of the 
McKinley tariff bill. Born in Ohio in 1843, he 
had served through the Civil War, had been a mem- 
ber of Congress and twice governor of Ohio. He was 
a thorough party man, and modified his former 
views on the silver question to conform with the 
platform on which he was nominated ; his campaign 
manager, Mark Hanna, was one of the most astute 
politicians the country had ever produced, and raised 
a campaign fund of unprecedented magnitude; all 
of which, combined with the disintegration of the 
Democratic party, gave McKinley a notable victory. 

The great event of his first administration was the 
war with Spain, undertaken to free Cuba, into which 
McKinley, be it said to his credit, was driven un- 
willingly by public clamor, cunningly fostered by 
a portion of the press. Its close saw the pur- 
chase of the Philippines, and the entrance of the 
United States upon a colonial policy believed by 
many to be wholly contrary to the spirit of its 
founders. 

There was never any question of McKinley's re- 
nomination, for his prestige and personal popularity 

161 



A Guide to Biography 

were immense, and his victory was again decisive. 
He had broadened rapidly, had gained in statesman- 
ship, had acquired a truer insight into the country's 
needs, and was now freed, to a great extent, from 
party obligations. Great hopes were built upon his 
second administration, and they would no doubt 
have been fulfilled, in part at least; but a few months 
after his inauguration, he was shot through the body 
by an irresponsible anarchist while holding a public 
reception at Buffalo, and died within the week. The 
years which have elapsed since his death enable 
us to view him more calmly than was possible 
while he lived, and the country has come to recog- 
nize in him an honest and well-meaning man, 
of more than ordinary ability, who might have 
risen to true statesmanship and won for himself a 
high place in the country's history had he been 
spared. 

On the ticket with McKinley, a young 'New Yorker 
named Theodore Roosevelt had been elected Vice- 
President. Roosevelt had long been prominent in his 
native state as an enthusiastic reformer, had made a 
sensational record in the war with Spain, and, on his 
return home, had been elected governor by popular 
clamor, rather than by the will of the politicians, to 
whom his rough-and-ready methods were extremely 
repugnant. So when the national convention was 
about to be held, they conceived the great idea of re- 
moving him from state politics and putting him on 
the shelf, so to speak, by electing him Vice-President, 
and the plan was carried out in spite of Roosevelt's 

162 



Lincoln and His Successors 

protests. Alas for the politicians ! It was witli a sort 
of poetic justice that he took the oath as President on 
the day of McKinley's death, September 14, 1901, 
while they were still rubbing their eyes and wonder- 
ing what had happened. 

His evident honesty of purpose, combined with an 
impulsive and energetic temperament, which led him 
into various indiscretions, soon made him a popular 
hero. He was a sort of Andrew Jackson over again, 
and in 1904, he was sent back to the presidency by 
an overwhelming majority. For a time he was, in- 
deed, the central figure of the republic. His energy 
was remarkable; he had a hand in everything; but 
many people, after a time, grew weary of so tumultu- 
ous and strenuous a life, and drew away from him, 
while still more were estranged by the undignified 
and violent controversies in which he became entan- 
gled. It is too soon, however, to attempt to give a 
true estimate of him. Indeed, he is as yet only in 
mid-career; and what his years to come will accom- 
plish cannot be even guessed. 

Despite his controversies with the leaders of his 
party, he retained sufficient power to dictate the 
nomination of his successor, William Howard Taft, 
an experienced jurist and administrator, who is but 
just entering upon his work as these lines are written, 
but to whom the American people are looking hope- 
fully for a wise and moderate administration. 

So stands the history of the rulers of the nation. 
As one looks back at them, one perceives a certain 

163 



A Guide to Biography 

rhythmical rise and fall of merit and attainment, 
which may roughly be represented thus: 



Washington 




"Washington freed us from the power of England; 
Lincoln freed us from the power of slavery; the third 
man in this great trio will be he w^ho will solve the 
vast economic problems which are the overshadowing 
issues of our day. Will he be a Democrat or Repub- 
lican — or of some new party yet to be born ? In any 
event, let us hope that Eate will not long withhold 
him! 

SUMMARY 

Lincoln, Abraham. Born in Hardin County, Ken- 
tucky, February 12, 1809; served in Black Hawk war, 
1832; admitted to the bar, 1836; began practice of 
law at Springfield, Illinois, 1837; Whig member Ill- 
inois legislature, 1834-42; member of Congress, 1847- 
49; Eepublican candidate for United States senator 
and held series of debates with Stephen A. Douglas, 
1858; elected President, 1860; inaugurated, March 4, 
1861; re-elected President, 1864; began second term, 
March 4, 1865; entered Richmond with Federal army, 
April 4, 1865; shot by John Wilkes Booth, at Ford's 

164 



Lincoln and His Successors 

Theatre, Washington, April 14, 1865, and died the fol- 
lowing day. 

Johnson, Andrew. Born at Ealeigh, North Caro- 
lina, December 29, 1808; member of Congress from 
Tennessee, 1843-53 ; governor of Tennessee, 1853-57 ; 
United States senator, 1857-62; military governor 
of Tennessee, 1862-64; inaugurated Vice-President, 
March 4, 1865; succeeded Lincoln as President, April 
15, 1865; impeached by Congress for high crimes and 
misdemeanors, but acquitted after a trial lasting from 
March 23 to May 26, 1868 ; United States senator from 
Tennessee, 1875; died in Carter County, Tennessee, 
July 31, 1875. 

Grant, Ulysses Simpson. Born at Point Pleasant, 
Clermont County, Ohio, April 27, 1822; graduated at 
"West Point, 1843; served through Mexican war, 1846- 
48; left the army in 1854, and settled in St. Louis; 
removed to Galena, Illinois, 1860; appointed colonel, 
June 17, 1861; brigadier-general, August 7, 1861; cap- 
tured Fort Donelson, February 16, 1862; promoted to 
major-general of volunteers and made commander of 
the Army of the District of West Tennessee, March, 
1862; gained battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862; cap- 
tured Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, and made major-general 
in the regular army; won battle of Chattanooga, No- 
vember 23-25, 1863 ; made lieutenant-general and com- 
mander-in-chief of American armies, March, 1864; took 
up his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, 
fought battles of Wilderness, and received Lee's sur- 
render at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865; 
made general, July 25, 1866; elected President, 1868, 
and re-elected, 1872; made tour of the world, 1877- 

165 



A Guide to Biography 

79; unsuccessful candidate for nomination for presi- 
dency^ 1880; made general on the retired list, March 4, 
1885; died at Mount McGregor, New York, July 23, 

1885. 

Hayes, Eutherford Birchard. Born at Delaware, 
Ohio, October 4, 1822; served in the Union army dur- 
ing the Civil War, being brevetted major-general of 
volunteers in 1864; member of Congress from Ohio, 
1865-67 ; governor of Ohio, 1868-72 and 1876 ; Eepub- 
lican candidate for President, 1876; declared elected 
by the Electoral Commission, March 2, 1877, and 
served, 1877-81; died at Fremont, Ohio, January 17, 
1893. 

Garfield, James Abram. Born at Orange, Cuya- 
hoga County, Ohio, November 19, 1831 ; instructor in 
and later president of Hiram College, Ohio, 1856-61; 
joined the Union army as lieutenant-colonel of volun- 
teers, 1861; defeated General Humphrey Marshall at 
the battle of Middle Creek, January 10, 1862; pro- 
moted brigadier-general, 1862; promoted major-gen- 
eral, 1863; member of Congress, 1863-80; elected 
United States senator, 1880; elected President, 1880; 
inaugurated, March 4, 1881; shot in Washington by 
Guiteau, July 2, 1881; died at Elberon, New Jersey, 
September 19, 1881. 

Arthur^ Chester Alan. Born at Fairfield, Ver- 
mont, October 5, 1830; graduated at Union College, 
1848; taught school and practiced law in New York 
City; inspector-general of New York troops, 1862; col- 
lector of the port of New York, 1871-78 ; elected Vice- 
President, 1880; succeeded Garfield as President, Sep- 
tember 20, 1881, serving to March 4, 1885; defeated for 

166 



Lincoln and His Successors 

Eepublican nomination, 1884; died at New York, No- 
vember 18, 1886. 

Cleveland, Grover. Born at Caldwell, Essex 
County, New Jersey, March 18, 1837; studied law at 
Buffalo, New York, and admitted to the bar, 1859; 
assistant district attorney of Erie County, 1863-66; 
sheriff of Erie County, 1871-74; Democratic mayor of 
Buffalo, 1882; governor of New York, 1883-84; 
elected President, 1884; served as President, 1885-89; 
advocated a reduction of the tariff in his message to 
Congress in December, 1887; defeated for re-election, 
1888; re-elected President, 1892; served, 1893-97; 
died at Princeton, New Jersey, June 24, 1908. 

Harrison, Benjamin. Born at North Bend, Ohio, 
August 20, 1833; graduated at Miami University, 
1852 ; studied law and practiced at Indianapolis ; served 
in Civil War and was brevetted brigadier-general; 
United States senator, 1881-87; elected President, 
1888; defeated for re-election, 1892; died at Indian- 
apolis, March 13, 1901. 

McKiNLEY, William. Born at Niles, Trumbull 
County, Ohio, January 29, 1844; served in the Civil 
War, attaining the rank of major ; member of Congress, 
1877-91; elected governor of Ohio, 1891; re-elected, 
1893; elected President, 1896; re-elected, 1900; shot by 
an assassin at Buffalo, New York, and died there, Sep- 
tember 14, 1901. 

EoosEVELT, Theodore. Born at New York City, 
October 27, 1858; graduated at Harvard, 1880; New 
York state assemblyman, 1882-84; resided on North 
Dakota ranch, 1884-86; national Civil Service Com- 
missioner, 1889-95; president New York Police Board, 

167 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

1895-97; assistant secretary of the navy, 1897-98; 
resigned to organize regiment of Rough Riders and 
served through war with Spain; governor of New 
York, 1899-1900; elected Vice-President, 1900; suc- 
ceeded to presidency on death of McKinley, September 
14, 1901; elected President, 1904; retired from presi- 
dency, March 4, 1909. 

Taft, William Howard. Born at Cincinnati, 
Ohio, September 15, 1857; graduated at Yale, 1878; 
admitted to bar, 1880; judge Superior Court, 1887-90; 
solicitor-general of the United States, 1890-92 ; United 
States circuit judge, 1892-1900; President Philippine 
Commission, 1900-04; secretary of war, 1904-08; 
elected President, 1908; inaugurated, March 4, 1909. 



168 



CHAPTER V 

STATESMEN 

IF one were asked to name the most remarkable 
all-around genius this country has produced, the 
answer would be Benjamin Franklin — whose life 
was perhaps the fullest, happiest and most useful 
ever lived in America. There are half a dozen 
chapters of this series in which he might rightfully 
find a place, and in which, indeed, it will be necessary 
to refer to him, for he was an inventor, a scientist, 
a man of letters, a philanthropist, a man of affairs, 
a reformer, and a great many other things besides. 
But first and greatest of all, he was a benign, humor- 
ous, kind-hearted philosopher, who devoted the 
greater portion of his life to the service of his coun- 
try and of humanity. 

Benjamin Franklin was born at Boston in 1706, 
the fifteenth of a family of seventeen children. His 
father was a soap-boiler, and was kept pretty busy 
providing for his family, none of whom, with the 
exception of Benjamin, ever attained any especial 
distinction; this being one of those mysteries of 
nature, which no one has ever been able to explain, 
and yet which happens so often — the production of 
an eagle in a brood of common barnyard fowls — a 

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A Guide to Biograplij 

miracle, however, which never happens except when 
the barnyard fowls are of the human species. Ben- 
jamin himself, at first, was only an ugly duckling in 
no way remarkable. 

At the age of ten, he was apprenticed to his 
brother, who was a printer, and needed a boy to do 
the dirty work around the office, and thought there 
was no need of paying good money to an outsider, 
when it might just as well be kept in the family. 
So Benjamin went to work sweeping out, and wash- 
ing up the dirty presses, and making himself gen- 
erally useful during the day; but — and here is the 
first gleam of the eagle's feather — instead of going 
to bed with the sun as most boys did, he sat up most 
of the night reading such books and papers as he 
was able to get hold of at the office, or himself wTit- 
ing short articles for the paper which his brother 
published. These he slipped unsigned under the 
front door of the office, so that his brother would 
not suspect they came from him; for no man is a 
prophet to his own family, and these contributions 
w^ould have promptly gone into the waste basket had 
his brother suspected their source. As it was, how- 
ever, they were printed, and not until Benjamin 
revealed their authorship did his brother discover 
how bad they were. 

After he had served in the printing office for seven 
years, Benjamin came to the conclusion that his 
family would never appreciate him at his real worth. 
He was like most boys in this, differing from them 
only in being right. So he sold some of his books, 

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Statesmen 

and without saying anything to his father or brother, 
who would probably have reasoned him out of his 
purpose with a cowhide whip, he hid himself on board 
a boat bound for IsTew York, Arrived there, he 
soon discovered that printers and budding geniuses 
were in no great demand, and so proceeded on to 
Philadelphia, partly on foot and partly by water. 

Everyone knows the story of how he landed there, 
with only a few pennies in his pocket, but with a 
sublime confidence in his ability to make more; how 
he proceeded to the nearest bakeshop, asked for three 
pennies' worth of bread, and when he was given three 
loaves, took them rather than reveal his ignorance 
by confessing that he really wanted only one loaf, 
and walked up Market street, with a loaf under each 
arm, and eating the third. He has told the story in 
his inimitable way in his autobiography, a work 
which gives him high place among American men 
of letters. Small wonder that red-cheeked Deborah 
Reed smiled at him from the door of her father's 
house — but Franklin saw the smile and remembered 
it, and though it brought them both distress enough 
at first, he asked Deborah to be his wife, six years 
later, and she consented, and a good wife she made 
him. Years afterward, when he was Ambassador to 
France and the pet of the French court, the centre 
of perhaps the most brilliant and witty circle in 
Europe, the talk, one day, chanced to turn upon 
tailors, of whom the company expressed the utmost 
detestation. Franklin listened with a quiet smile, 
which some one at last observed. 

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A Guide to Biography 

" Don't you agree/' he was asked, " that tailors 
are a conscienceless and extortionate class ? " 

" No," he answered, still smiling ; ^' how could I ? 
You see, I'm in love with mine." 

And he told proudly and with shining eyes how 
the clothes he wore had been spun into thread and 
woven into cloth and cut out and fitted and sewed 
together by his wife's own hands; and it was no 
doubt Deborah he had in mind when he said : " God 
bless all good women who help men to do their 
work." 

The young adventurer had no difficulty in finding 
employment as a printer, for printers were in de- 
mand in that Quaker city. He prospered from the 
first, and at the age of twenty-four, had a little busi- 
ness of his own, and was editing the Pennsylvania 
Gazette, Two years later, he began the publica- 
tion of an almanac purporting to be written by one 
Richard Saunders, and which soon w^on an immense 
reputation as " Poor Richard's Almanac." As an 
almanac, it did not differ much from others, but, 
in addition to the usual information about the 
tides and changes of the moon and seasons of the 
year, it contained a wealth of wise and witty say- 
ings, many of which have passed into proverbs and 
are in common use to-day. Here are a fev/ of 
them : 

Virtue and a trade are a child's best portions. 

Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble. 

The way to be safe is never to be secure. 

When you are good to others, you are best to yourself. 

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Statesmen 

Well done is better than well said. 
God helps them that help themselves. 
Wish not so much to live long as to live well. 
He that won't be counselled can't be helped. 

That he was a philosopher in deed as well as in 
word was soon to be proved, for, at the age of forty- 
two, he did the wisest thing a man can do, but for 
which very few have courage. He had won an estab- 
lished position in the world and as much wealth as 
he felt he needed, so he sold his business, intending 
to devote the remainder of his life to science, of 
which he had always been passionately fond. Al- 
ready he had founded the Philadelphia Library and 
the American Philosophical Society, had invented 
the Franklin stove, and served as postmaster of Phila- 
delphia, and a few years later, he established the 
institution which is now the University of Pennsyl- 
vania. It was at about this time that, by experiment- 
ing with a kite, he proved lightning to be a discharge 
of electricity, and suggested the use of lightning rods. 

But his scientific studies were destined to be in- 
terrupted, for his country called him, and the re- 
mainder of his life was passed in her service, first 
as agent in London for Pennsylvania, where he did 
everything possible to avert the Revolution; then 
as a member of the Continental Congress, and one 
of the committee of five which drew up the Declara- 
tion of Independence; then as ambassador to Prance, 
where, practically imaided, he succeeded in effecting 
the alliance between the two countries which secured 
the independence of the colonies ; and finally as Presi- 

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A Guide to Biography 

dent of Pennsylvania and a member of the Con- 
stitutional Convention. His last public act was to 
petition Congress to abolish slavery in the United 
States. If one were asked to name the three men 
who did most to secure the independence of their 
country, they would be George "Washington, who 
fought her battles, Robert Morris, who financed 
them, and Benjamin Franklin, who secured the aid 
of France. When Thomas Jefferson, who had been 
selected as minister to France, appeared at the court 
of Louis XYI, he presented his papers to the Comte 
de Yergennes. 

"You replace Mr. Franklin? '^ inquired the noble- 
man, glancing at the papers. 

" !N^o, monsieur," Jefferson replied, " I succeed 
him. "No one could replace him." 

And that answer had more truth than wit. 

Honors came to Franklin such as no other Amer- 
ican has ever received, but he remained from first 
to last the same quiet, deep-hearted, and unselfish 
man, whose chief motive was the promotion of 
human w^elfare. He had his faults and made his 
mistakes; but time has sloughed them all away, and 
there are few sources of inspiration which can com- 
pare with the study of his life. 

!N'o family has loomed larger in American affairs 
than the Adams family of Massachusetts. John 
Adams, President himself and living to see his own 
son President — an experience which probably no 
other man will ever enjoy — had a second cousin who 

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FRANKLIN 



Statesmen 

played a mucli more important part than he did in 
securing the independence of the United States. His 
name was Samuel Adams, and when he graduated 
from Harvard in 1740, at the age of eighteen, his 
thesis discussed the question, " Whether it be lawful 
to resist the supreme magistrate if the commonwealth 
cannot otherwise be preserved,'' and answered it in 
the affirmative. 

Samuel Adams was a silent, stern and deeply 
religious man, something of a dreamer, a bad man- 
ager and constantly in debt; but he was perhaps the 
first in America to conceive the idea of absolute in- 
dependence from Great Britain, and he worked for 
this end unceasingly and to good purpose. The 
wealthy John Hancock was one of his converts, and 
it was partly to warn these two of the troops sent 
out to capture them that Paul Revere took that 
famous ride to Lexington on the night of April 18, 
1775. A month later, when General Gage offered 
amnesty to all the rebels, Hancock and Adams were 
especially excepted. 

It was Samuel Adams who, perceiving that Vir- 
ginia was apt to be lukewarm in aiding a war which 
was to be fought mostly in the IN'orth, suggested the 
appointment of Virginia's favorite son, George Wash- 
ington, as commander-in-chief of the American 
army, and who seconded the motion to that effect 
made by John Adams. He lived to see his dream 
of independence realized, and his grave in the old 
Granary burying ground at Boston is one of the 
pilgrimage places of America. 

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A Guide to Biography 

Witli liis name that of John Hancock is, as we 
have seen, closely associated! The worldly circum- 
stances of the two were very different, for Samuel 
Adams was always poor, while John Hancock had 
fallen heir to one of the greatest fortunes in 'New 
England. He was only twenty-seven at the time, and 
his fortune made a fool of him, as sudden wealth has 
a way of doing. It was at this time, being young 
and impressionable, he met Samuel Adams, a silent 
and reserved man, fifteen years his senior and re- 
garded by his neighbors as a harmless crank. But 
there was something about him which touched Han- 
cock's imagination — and touched his pocketbook, too, 
for about the first thing Adams did was to borrow, 
money from him. 

Hancock was no doubt glad to lend the money, 
for he had more than he knew what to do with, and 
spent it in such a lavish manner that he was soon 
one of the most popular men in Boston. So when 
one of his ships was seized for smuggling in a cargo 
of wine, all his friends and employes got together 
and paraded the streets, and a lot of boys and loafers 
joined them, for drink was flowing freely, and pretty 
soon there was a riot, and the troops were called out 
and fired a volley and killed five men, and the rest 
of the mob decided that it was time to go home, and 
went. And that was the Boston massacre about 
which you have heard so much that it would almost 
seem to rank with that of St. Bartholomew. But, 
as the Irishman remarked, the man who gets his 
finger pinched makes a lot more racket than the one 

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Statesmen 

who gets his head cut off; and the Boston massacre, 
for all the hullabaloo that was raised about it, was 
merely an insignificant street riot. Xo doubt Samuel 
Adams did his full share in fanning that little spark 
into a conflagration! 

For Adams had acquired great influence over Han- 
cock, and that vapid young man was fond of being 
seen in the company of the older one. Adams was 
anxious to secure Hancock for the revolutionary 
cause, and soon had him so hopelessly entangled that 
there was no escape for him. On the anniversary of 
the Boston massacre, he persuaded Hancock to de- 
liver a revolutionary speech, which he had himself 
prepared, and after that there was a British order 
out for Hancock's arrest; Adams contrived that 
Hancock should be one of the three delegates from 
Massachusetts to the Continental Congress — John 
and Samuel Adams were the other two — and Han- 
cock was deeply impressed by the honor; at the 
second Congress, Adams saw to it that his friend 
was chosen President. In consequence, Hancock was 
the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, 
the incident which is the best known in his career. 
He signed the document in great sprawly letters, 
remarking grandiloquently, as he did so, "I guess 
King George can read that without spectacles," and 
for many years, " John Hancock " was the synonym 
for a bold signature. He was afterwards governor 
of Massachusetts for more than a decade, and on 
one occasion attempted to snub "Washington, with 
very poor success. His body lies in the old Granary 

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A Guide to Biography 

burjing-ground, only a step from that of Samuel 
Adams. 



One day, while Thomas Jefferson was a student 
at William and Mary College, at Williamsburg, a 
young friend named Patrick Henry dropped in to 
see him, and announced that he had come to Will- 
iamsburg to be admitted to the bar. 

"How long have you studied law? '' Jefferson in- 
quired. 

" Oh, for over six weeks," Henry answered. 

The story goes that Jefferson advised his friend 
to go home and study for at least a fortnight 
longer; but Henry declared that the only way to 
learn law was to practice it, and went ahead 
and took the examination, such as it was, and 
passed ! 

That was in 1Y60, and Patrick Henry was twenty- 
four years old at the time. He had been a wild boy, 
cared little for books, and had failed as a farmer 
and as a merchant before turning to law as a last 
resort, l^ov as a lawyer was he a great success, the 
truth being that he lacked the industry and diligence 
which are essential to success in any profession; but 
he had- one supreme gift, that of lofty and impas- 
sioned oratory. In 1765, as a member of the Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses, he made the rafters ring 
and his auditors turn pale by his famous speech 
against the stamp act; as a delegate to the Conti- 
nental Congress in 1774, he made the only real speech 
of the Congress, arousing the delegates from an at- 

175 



Statesmen 

titiide of mutual suspicion to one of patriotic ardor 
for a common cause. 

" Government," said he, " is dissolved. Where are 
your landmarks, your boundaries of colonies? The 
distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, 
]^ew Yorkers, and 'New Englanders are no more. 
I am not a Virginian, but an American." 

Samuel Adams said afterwards that, but for that 
speech, which drew the delegates together and made 
them forget their differences, the Congress would 
probably have ended in a wrangle. And a year later, 
again in Virginia, in defense of his resolution to arm 
the militia, he gave utterance to the most famous 
speech of all, starting quietly with the sentence, " Mr. 
President, it is natural for man to indulge in the 
illusions of hope," and ending with the tremendous 
cry: " I know not what course others may take, but 
as for me, give me liberty, or give me death ! " 

That was the supreme moment of Patrick Henry's 
life. He did a great work after that, as member of 
the Continental Congress, as commander-in-chief of 
the Virginia forces, and as governor of the Com- 
monwealth, but never again did he come so near the 
stars — as, indeed, few men ever do. 

You have all heard the story of Damon and 
Pythias, true type of devoted friendship, and history 
abounds in such examples; but sometimes it shows a 
darker side, and the controlling force in two men's 
lives will be hate instead of love, and the end will 
be shipwreck and tragedy. Such a story we are to 

179 



A Guide to Biography 

tell briefly here of the lives of Alexander Hamilton 
and Aaron Burr. 

They were bom a year apart, Burr in 1756, at 
ISTewark, 'New Jersey; Hamilton, in 1757, on the 
little West Indian island of ISTevis. Burr was of a 
distinguished ancestry, his grandfather being the fa- 
mous Jonathan Edwards; Hamilton's father was an 
obscure planter whose first name has been lost to 
history. Burr graduated at Princeton, entered the 
army, rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and 
resigned in 1777 to study law, being admitted to the 
Isew York bar five years later. Hamilton was sent 
to New York, entered King's, now Columbia, Col- 
lege, got caught in the rising tide of Revolution, 
proved himself uncommonly ready with tongue and 
pen, enlisted, saw the battles of Long Island, Tren- 
ton, and Princeton, was appointed aide-de-camp to 
AYashington and acted as his secretary, filling the 
post admirably, but resigned in a fit of pique over 
a fancied slight, and repaired to ^ew York to 
study law. Such, in outline, is the history of 
these two men until Pate threw them in each other's 
way. 

!N'ew York City was the arena where the battle 
was fought. Within a few years, Hamilton and 
Burr were the most famous men in the town. They 
resembled each other strongly in temperament and 
disposition ; each was ^' passionate, brooking no 
rivalry; ambitious, faltering at no obstacle; proud 
with a fiery and aggressive pride; eloquent with the 
quick wit, the natural vivacity, and the lofty certainty 

180 



Statesmen 

of the true orator." They were too nearly alike to 
be friends; they became instinctive enemies. Each 
felt that the other was in the way. 

For sixteen years, Burr practiced law in 'New 
York, growing steadily in influence. For five of 
those years, Hamilton did the same. They were 
the foremost lawyers in the city. No man could 
stand befotre them, and when they met on opposite 
sides of a case, it was, indeed, a meeting of giants. 
But in 1789, Washington appointed Hamilton his 
secretary of the treasury, and leaving New York, 
Hamilton applied himself to the great task of es- 
tablishing the public credit, laying the basis for the 
financial system of the nation, which endures imtil 
this day. It was a splendid task, splendidly per- 
formed, and Hamilton emerged from it the leader 
of the powerful Federal party. 

In 1800, two men were candidates for the presi- 
dency. One was Thomas Jefferson and the other 
was Aaron Burr. Instead of being overwhelmed 
by the great Virginian, Burr received an equal num- 
ber of electoral votes, and the contest was referred 
to Congress for decision. As a Federalist, Burr felt 
that he should have Hamilton's support, but Hamil- 
ton used his great influence against him, stigmatizing 
him as " a dangerous man,'' and Jefferson was 
elected. Four years later. Burr was a candidate for 
governor of New York, and again Hamilton openly, 
bitterly, and successfully opposed him, again speak- 
ing of him as " a dangerous man." 

Smarting under the sting of this second defeat, 

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A Guide to BiogTapliy 

Burr sent a note to Hamilton asking if the expres- 
sion, " a dangerous man/' referred to him politically 
or personally. Hamilton sent a sneering reply, and 
expressed himself as willing to abide by the conse- 
quences. It was " fighting language between fighting 
men '^ — a quarrel which Hamilton had been seeking 
for five years and which he had done everything 
in his power to provoke — and Burr promptly sent a 
challenge. Hamilton as promptly accepted it, named 
pistols at ten paces as the weapons, and at seven 
o'clock on the morning of July 11, 1804, the two 
men faced each other on the heights of Weehawken, 
overlooking Xew York bay. Both fired at the word; 
Burr's bullet passed through Hamilton's body; Ham- 
ilton's cut a twig above Burr's head. Hamilton died 
next day, and Burr, his political career at an end, 
buried himself in the West. 

Three years later, he was arrested, charged with 
treason, for attempting to found an independent state 
within the borders of the Union. He had a wild 
dream of establishing a great empire to the west of 
the Mississippi, and had collected arms and men for 
the expedition, and was on his way down the Missis- 
sippi when he was arrested and taken back to Rich- 
mond for trial. But his plan could not be proved 
to be treasonable; indeed, his arrest was due more 
to the animosity which Jefferson felt toward him, 
than from any other cause, and, brought to trial a 
year later, he was acquitted. But his reputation was 
ruined, there was no hope for him in public life, and 
his remaining years were spent quietly in the practice 

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Statesmen 

of his lorofession, partly abroad and partly in Kew 
York. 

It has been too much the habit to picture Burr as 
a thoroughgoing scoundrel who murdered an inno- 
cent man and conspired against his country. As a 
matter of fact, he did neither. Of the charge of 
treason he was acquitted, even at a time when public 
feeling ran high against him, and in the quarrel with 
Hamilton, it was Hamilton who was at all times the 
aggressor. Both were brilliant, accomplished and 
courtly men — even, perhaps, men of genius — but 
Fate spread a net for their feet, blindly they stum- 
bled into it, and, too proud to retrace their steps, 
pushed on to the tragic end. 

The presiding judge at Burr's trial, not the least 
of whose achievements was the holding level of the 
scales of justice on that memorable occasion, was the 
last of that great school of statesmen who had fought 
for their country's independence, and who had seen 
the states united under a common Constitution. John 
Marshall lived well into the nineteenth century, and 
his great work was to interpret that Constitution to 
the country, to give it the meaning which it has for 
us to-day. Marshall was a Virginian, was just of 
age at the outbreak of the Kevolution, and served 
in the American army for five years, enlisting as 
a private and rising to the rank of captain. At the 
close of the war, he studied law, gained a prominent 
place in the politics of his state, drew the attention 
of Washington by his unusual ability, and in 1800 
was appointed by him secretary of state. A year 

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A Guide to Biograpliy 

later lie was made chief justice of the Supreme 
Court — an appointment little less than inspired in 
its wisdom. 

For thirty-four years, John Marshall occupied 
that exalted position, interpreting to the new coun- 
try its organic law, and the decisions handed down 
by him remain the standard authority on constitu- 
tional questions. In clearness of thought, breadth 
of view, and strength of logic they have never been 
surpassed. His service to his country was of in- 
calculable value, for he built for the national gov- 
ernment a firm foundation which has stood unshaken 
through the years. 

So we come to a new era in American history — 
an era marked by unexampled bitterness of feeling 
and culminating in the great struggle for the pres- 
ervation of the Union. Across this era, three mighty 
giants cast their shadows — Henry Clay and Daniel 
Webster and John C. Calhoun. 

Closely and curiously intertwined were the des- 
tinies of these three men. Clay was born in 1777; 
Webster and Calhoun five years later. Calhoun and 
Clay were Irishmen and hated England; "Webster 
was a Scotchman, and Scotchmen were usually 
Tories. Calhoun and Clay were southerners, but 
with a difference, for Calhoun was born in the very 
sanctum sanctorum of the South, South Carolina, 
while Clay's life was spent in the border state of 
Kentucky, so removed from the South that it did not 
secede from the Union. Webster was a product of 

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Statesmen 

Massachusetts. Calhoun and Webster were, in tem- 
perament and belief, as far apart as the poles; Clay 
stood between them, " the great compromiser." Cal- 
houn and Webster were greater than Clay, for they 
possessed a larger genius and a broader culture; and 
Webster was a greater man than Calhoun, because 
he possessed the truer vision. Calhoun died in 1850; 
Clay and Webster in 1852. For the forty years 
previous to that, these three men were in every way 
the most famous and conspicuous in America. Others 
flashed, meteor-like, into a brief brilliance; but these 
three burned steady as the stars. They had no real 
rivals. And yet, though each of them was con- 
sumed by an ambition to be President, not one was 
able to realize that ambition, and their last years 
were embittered by defeat. 

As has been said. Clay was the smallest man of the 
three. His reputation rests, not upon constructive 
statesmanship, but upon his ability as a party leader, 
in which respect he has had few equals in American 
history, and upon his success in proposing compro- 
mises. Born in Virginia, and admitted to the bar in 
1797, he moved the same year to Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, where his practice brought him rapid and bril- 
liant success. His personality, too, won him many 
friends, and it was so all his life. " To come within 
reach of the snare of his speech was to love him," 
and even to this day Kentucky believes that no 
statesman ever lived who equalled this adopted son 
of hers, nor doubts the entire sincerity of his famous 
boast that he would rather be right than President. 

185 



A Guide to Biography 

Of course lie got into politics. That was his nat- 
ural and inevitable field. As early as 1806 he was 
sent to the Senate, and afterwards to the House, of 
which he was speaker for thirteen years. Three 
times was he a candidate for the presidency, defeated 
once by John Quincy Adams, once by Andrew Jack- 
son, and once, when victory seemed almost his, by 
William Henry Harrison. That other great party 
leader, James G. Blaine, was to meet a similar fate 
years later. Henry Clay lacked the deep foresight, 
the prophetic intuition necessary to statesmanship 
of the first rank, and some of the achievements which 
he considered the greatest of his life were in reality 
blunders which had afterwards to be corrected. But 
as a compromiser, as a rider of troubled waters, 
and a pilot at a time when shipwreck seemed 
imminent and unavoidable, he proved his consum- 
mate ability, and merits the gratitude of his 
country. 

Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were leaders in 
the same great party, and Avere, for the most part, 
personal friends as well as political allies. But Web- 
ster overshadowed Clay in intellect, however he may 
have been outdistanced by him in political astuteness. 
If Clay were the fox, Webster was the lion. As a 
constitutional lawyer, he has never been excelled ; as 
an orator, no other American has ever equalled him. 
He had in supreme degree the orator's equipment of 
a dominant and impressive personality, a moving 
voice, an eloquent countenance, and a command of 
words little less than inspired. The last sentences 

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Statesmen 

of his reply to Hajne have come ringing down tlie 
years, and stand unequalled as sheer eloquence : 

"When my eyes shall be turned to behold for 
the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him 
shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of 
a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, dis- 
cordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds 
or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let 
their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold 
the gorgeous ensign of the Eepublic, now known 
and honored throughout the earth, still full high ad- 
vanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their 
original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor 
a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such 
miserable interrogatory as * What is all this worth '? 
nor those other words of delusion and folly, ' Liberty 
first and Union afterwards '; but everywhere, spread 
all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its 
ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the 
land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, 
that other sentiment, dear to every true American 
lieart — Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and 
inseparable! '' 

The great audience that listened spellbound to 
that oration, arose and left the Capitol like persons 
in a dream. Never were they to forget the effect 
of that tremendous speech. 

But the last years of his life were ruined by his 
ambition to be President. In spite of his command- 
ing talents, or, perhaps, because of them, he never 
at any time had a chance of receiving the nomina- 

187 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

tion of liis party, and his final defeat in 1852, by 
Winfield Scott, practically killed him. 

Webster was the son of a New Hampshire farmer, 
^vho managed to send him to Dartmouth College, 
from which he graduated in 1801. Four years later 
he was admitted to the bar at Boston, and in 1812 
he was elected to Congress. We find him at once 
violently opposing the second war with England, 
for which Clay was working so aggressively. For 
ten years after that, he devoted himself to the prac- 
tice of his profession, and soon became the foremost 
lawyer of New England, especially on constitutional 
questions. In 1823, he was again sent to Congress; 
entered the Senate in 1828, and remained in public 
life practically until his death. 

It was in 1830 that he delivered the speech already 
referred to — perhaps the most remarkable ever 
heard within the walls of the Capitol. Senator 
Ilayne, of South Carolina, had made a remarkable 
address, lasting two days, advocating the right of a 
state to render null and void an unconstitutional 
law of Congress — in other words, the right of seces- 
sion from the Union. Two days later, Webster rose 
to reply. His appearance, always impressive, was 
imusually so that day; his argument, always close- 
knit and logical, was the very summation of these 
qualities; his words seemed edged with fire as he 
argued that the Constitution is supreme, the Union 
indissoluble, and that no state has, or can have the 
right to resist or nullify a national law. It was the 
greatest oration of America's greatest orator. 

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Statesmen 

Of its effect upon the people who heard it we 
have spoken; throughout the country it produced a 
profound impression. The North felt that a new 
prophet had arisen; the South, a new foeman. The 
great advocate of nullification, however, was not 
Hajne, who would be scarcely remembered to-day 
but for the fact that it was to him "Webster addressed 
his reply, but that formidable giant of a man, John 
C. Calhoun — the man whom the South felt to be 
her peculiar representative on the question of state 
rights, of nullification, and, at last, of slavery. His 
fate was one of the saddest in American history, for 
the cause he fought for was a doomed cause, and as 
he sank into his grave, he saw tottering down upon 
him the great structure which he had devoted his 
whole life to upholding. 

Not much is known of Calhoun's youth. He was 
the grandson of an Irish immigrant who had settled 
in South Carolina, graduated from Yale in 1804, 
studied law, was admitted to the bar, and, returning 
to his native state, was, in 1811, elected a member 
of Congress. That was the beginning of a public 
career which was to last until his death. 

Almost from the first, he was consumed with an 
ambition to be President, and perhaps would have 
been, but for an incident so trivial that, under ordi- 
nary circumstances, it would have had no conse- 
quences. In 1818, as Monroe's secretary of war, 
Calhoun had occasion at a cabinet meeting to express 
some censure of Andrew Jackson's conduct of the 
Seminole war — a censure which was deserved, since 

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A Guide to Biogi-apliy 

Jackson had violated the law of nations in pnrsning 
his enemy into a foreign country. Twelve years 
later, when Jackson was President and Calhoun, as 
Vice-President, was in direct line of succession, so 
to speak, Jackson heard of Calhoun's remarks, flew 
into a violent rage, came out as Calhoun's declared 
enemy, and dealt the death-blow to his presidential 
aspirations. 

Smarting from this injustice, Calhoun turned his 
attention to the question of state sovereignty, and 
in February, 1833, South Carolina passed the nulli- 
fication ordinance to which we have already referred. 
Calhoun at once resigned the vice-presidency and 
took his seat in the Senate, prepared to defend the 
attitude of his state. But Jackson did not wait for 
that. Seeing that here was an opportunity to strike 
his enemy, he ordered troops to South Carolina, and 
threatened to hang Calhoun as high as Haman — 
a threat which he very possibly would have attempted 
to carry out had not hostilities been averted by the 
genius for compromise of Henry Clay. From that 
time forward, Calhoun became the high priest of 
the doctrine of state rights and the great defender 
of slavery. He fought inch by inch the growing 
sentiment against it; he knew it was a losing fight, 
and almost the last words uttered by his dying lips 
were, "The South! The poor South! God knows 
what will become of her ! " 

The great triumvirate left no successors to com- 
pare with them in prestige or power. Two survivals 

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Statesmen 

from the war of 1812 were still on the scene, Thomas 
Hart Benton and Lewis Cass. Benton was a North 
Carolina man who had removed to Nashville, and 
at the outbreak of the war, enlisted imder Andrew 
Jackson, and got into a disgraceful street fight with 
him, in the course of which Jackson was nearly killed. 
Strange to say, that doughty old hero chose to forget 
the matter long years afterwards, when Benton was 
in the Senate — a Union senator from the slave state 
of Missouri. 

Cass also served through the war, but at the 
North; was involved in Hull's surrender of Detroit 
and broke his sword in rage at the disgrace of it; 
and was afterwards governor of Michigan and Jack- 
son's secretary of war; then, in 1848, Democratic 
nominee for President and defeated because of 
Martin Van Buren's disaffection; finally, in 1857, 
Buchanan's secretary of state, resigning, in 1860, 
because that shilly-shally President could not make 
up his mind to send reinforcements to Bob Anderson 
at Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. A man who 
played many parts, filled many positions, and filled 
them well, Cass's name deserves to be more widely 
remembered than it is. 

In those days, a strange, pompous and ineffective 
figure was flitting across the stage, impressing men 
with a respect and significance which it did not 
possess, its name, Ste]Dhen A. Douglas, nicknamed 
" The Little Giant," but giant in little else than 
power to create disturbance. Perhaps no other man 
ever possessed that power in quite the same degree ; 

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A Guide to Biograplij 

nor possessed in a greater degree that fascination of 
personality which makes friends and gains adherents. 

Consumed by a gnawing desire of the presidency, 
beaten for the nomination in 1852, destroying the 
serenity of the land two years later by contending 
that Congress had no right to limit slavery in the 
territories, in the vain hope of winning southern 
support, but finding himself instead dubbed traitor 
and Judas Iscariot, receiving thirty pieces of silver 
from a club of Ohio women, travelling from Boston 
to Chicago " by the light of his o^\Tl effigies," which 
yelling crowds were burning at the stake, and finally 
hooted off the stage in his own city, certainly it 
would seem that Douglas's public career was over 
forever. 

But he managed to live down his blunder and to 
regain much of his old strength by reason of his 
w^inning personality; yet made another blunder when 
he agreed to meet Abraham Lincoln in debate — and 
one which cost him the presidency. For his op- 
ponent drove him into corners from which he could 
find no way out except at the risk of offending the 
South. In those days, one had to be either for or 
against slavery; there was no middle course, and the 
man who attempted to find one, fell between two 
stools, as Douglas himself soon learned. 

Last scene of all, pitted against that same Abra- 
ham Lincoln who had greased the plank for him and 
shorn him of his southern support, in the presi- 
dential contest of 1860, defeated and wounded to 
death by it, for he knew that never again would he 

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Statesmen 

be within sight of that long-sought prize; yet rising 
nobly at the last to a height of purest patriotism, 
declaring for the Union, pledging his support to 
Lincoln, pointing the way of duty to his million 
followers, and destroying at a blow the South's hope 
of a divided ]N'orth — let us do Stephen A. Douglas 
that justice, and render him that meed of praise; 
for whatever the mistakes and turnings and evasions 
of his career, that last great work of his outweighed 
them all. 

A man who had a great reputation in his own 
day as an orator and statesman, but whose polished 
periods appeal less and less to succeeding generations 
was Edward Everett — an evidence, perhaps, that the 
head alone can never win lasting fame. Everett 
was a New Englander; a Harvard man, graduating 
with the highest honors; and two years later, pastor 
of a Unitarian church in Boston. There his elo- 
quence soon attracted attention, and won him a wide 
reputation. At the age of twenty-one, he was ap- 
pointed professor of Greek at Harvard; and in 1824, 
at the age of thirty, he was chosen to represent the 
Boston district in Congress. He remained there 
for ten years, served four terms as governor of 
Massachusetts, was ambassador to England, and then 
president of Harvard from 1846-1849; was ap- 
pointed secretary of state on the death of Daniel 
Webster in 1852; and finally, in the following year, 
was elected to the Senate, but was soon forced to 
resign on account of ill-health. 

Soon afterwards, he threw himself into the project 

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A Guide to Biograpliy 

to purchase Mount Yernon by private subscription, 
delivered his oration on Washington 122 times, net- 
ting more than $58,000 toward the project; obtained 
another $10,000 from the Public Ledger bv writing 
for it a weekly article for the period of a year, and 
added $3,000 more, secured from the readers of that 
paper. From that time on, he delivered various lec- 
tures for philanthropic causes, the receipts aggregat- 
ing nearly a hundred thousand dollars. They are 
little read to-day because, in spite of his erudition, 
polish and high attainments, Everett really had no 
new message to deliver. 

"With the coming of the Civil War, another trium- 
virate emerges to control the destinies of the nation 
— Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner and William 
Henry Seward. Stevens and Seward had been intro- 
duced to politics by the ineffectual and absurd anti- 
Masonic party, which flitted across the stage in the 
early thirties. In 1851, Massachusetts rebuked 
Daniel Webster for his supposed surrender to the 
slavery party, made in hope of attaining the presi- 
dency, by placing Sumner in his seat in the Senate, 
and retiring him to private life, where he still re- 
mained the most commanding figure in the country. 

Seward was already in the Senate, had spoken in 
reply to Webster, and assumed the leadership which 
Webster forfeited. In the House, too, was Stevens, 
who soon gained prominence by a certain vitriolic 
force which w^as in him, and these three men labored 
unceasingly for the defeat of the South — indeed, 

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Statesmen 

for more than Its defeat — for payment, to tlie last 
drop, for the sins it had committed. They were 
bound together by party ties and in other ways, but 
most closely of all by a hatred of slavery, which, 
with Stevens and Sumner, mounted at times to 
fanaticism and led them into the errors always await- 
ing the fanatic. 

Thaddeus Stevens, the oldest of the three, had 
been born in Vermont, but removed to Pennsylvania 
at the age of twenty-two, and began to practice law 
there. In 1831, he was one of the moving spirits 
in the formation of the anti-Masonic party, which 
fancied it saw, in the spread of Masonry, a grave 
danger to the republic. Two years later, Stevens 
was chosen a member of the Pennsylvania legisla- 
ture, but his career did not really begin until, in 
1848, at the age of fifty-seven, he was elected a 
member of the national House of Representatives, 
where he soon took his place as the leader of the 
anti-slavery faction. From that time forward, he 
was unceasing in his warfare against slavery, fre- 
quently going to lengths where few cared to follow, 
and which would seem to indicate that there was a 
trace of madness in the man. He developed an ex- 
aggerated and sentimental regard for the negro, and 
grew radical and relentless toward the South. 

At the close of the war, he regarded the southern 
states as conquered territory, to be treated as such, 
and his ideas of treatment seem to have been founded 
upon those of the Middle Ages. He wished to con- 
fiscate the property of all Confederates; endeavored 

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A Guide to Biograplij 

to impeach President Johnson, who was trying to 
enforce a system of reconstruction which was at least 
better than that which Stevens advocated. For a 
time he seemed to suffer from a very vertigo of 
hatred, which ate into his soul and destroyed him. 
The plan of reconstruction adopted by Congress was 
an embodiment of his ideas; but Johnson was ac- 
quitted of the charges Stevens brought against him, 
and Stevens's poison, as it were, turned in upon him- 
self and killed him. His last request, that his body 
be buried in an obscure private cemetery, because 
public cemeteries excluded negroes, shows the man's 
unbalanced condition, the length to which his ideas 
had led him. 

Charles Sumner, who was to the Senate much 
what Stevens was to the House, although a larger 
and better-balanced man, was a typical Bostonian 
and inheritor of the ISTew England conscience, which, 
of course, meant that he was opposed through and 
through to slavery. He was a successful lawyer, and 
as his sentiments were well known, he was chosen 
to succeed Webster when the latter wavered on the 
anti-slavery question, and threw some pledges of 
assistance to the South. There was never any doubt 
about Sumner's position, no sign of wavering or 
coquetting with the enemy, and in 1856, he was 
assaulted by a southern senator and so severely in- 
jured that three years passed before he could resume 
his seat. 

He did so in time to oppose any compromise with 
slavery or the slave power, which the threatening 

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Statesmen 

attitude of the Soutli had almost scared the l^orth 
into considering, and urged the immediate emancipa- 
tion of the slaves. When this had been accomplished, 
his first thought was to make sure that the slaves 
would remain free, and he began the contest for 
negro suffrage, as the only guarantee of negro free- 
dom, which he finally won. In the reconstruction 
period following the war, he was inevitably an ally 
of Thaddeus Stevens, though the latter far sur- 
passed him in vindictiveness toward the South. 

Let us not forget that the South had shown itself 
blind to its own interests when, as soon as recon- 
structed by Andrew Johnson, it had, state by state, 
adopted laws virtually enslaving the black man 
again. But for this fatuity, there would probably 
have been no such feeling of vindictiveness at the 
North as soon developed there ; certainly there would 
have been no excuse for such severity as was after- 
wards exhibited. So it is true in a sense that the 
South has itself to blame for the horrors of the re- 
construction period, and for the suspicion with which 
its good faith toward the negro was for many years 
regarded. Sumner was not a vindictive man, and 
in his last years, incurred a vote of censure from 
his own State for offering a bill to remove the names 
of battles of the Civil War from the Army Register 
and from the regimental colors of the United States. 
He practically died in harness in 1874. Looking 
back at him, one sees how much larger he looms 
than Stevens; one cannot but admire his courage and 
honesty of purpose; his public life was a continual 

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A Guide to Biography 

struggle for the right, as he saw it, and, remember- 
ing that, his faults need not trouble us. 

When Sumner arrived in the Senate, he found 
William II. Seward, of l^ew York, already there. 
Seward, who had been admitted to the bar in 1822, 
at the age of twenty-one, was carried into the New 
York legislature by the anti-Masonic wave of 1830. 
Eight years later, he was the Whig governor of the 
state, and in 1849 was sent to the Senate. There 
he soon rivetted attention by his rebuke of Webster 
for condoning the Fugitive Slave Law, and caught 
the reins of party leadership as they fell from Web- 
ster's hands. It was then that he made his famous 
statement that the war against slavery was waged 
under a " higher law than the Constitution," and 
that the fall of slavery was inevitable. 

In 1856, when the newly-formed anti-slavery 
party, known as the Republican, met to name a 
national ticket, Seward was the logical candidate, 
but refused to allow his name to be considered, and 
the choice fell upon that brilliant adventurer, John C. 
Fremont. Fremont was, of course, defeated, and 
Seward continued to be the leader of Republican 
thought, and the chief originator of Republican doc- 
trine. Indeed, he was, in a sense, the Republican 
party, so that, four years later, he seemed not only 
the logical but the inevitable choice of the party for 
President. His most formidable opponent was Abra- 
ham Lincoln, of Illinois, who had been carefully work- 
ing for the nomination, and who was blessed with the 
shrewdest of campaign managers. Seward led on the 

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Statesmen 

first ballot, and would have won but for the expert 
trading already referred to in the story of Lincoln's 
nomination. 

It was natural that Lincoln should offer him the 
state portfolio, and Seward accepted it. From first 
to last, he held true to the President, and the services 
he rendered the country were second only to those 
of Lincoln himself. When Lincoln was killed, an 
attempt was also made to murder Seward, and was 
very nearly successful — so nearly that for days 
Seward lingered between life and death. He recov- 
ered, however, to resume his place in Johnson's 
cabinet. Over the new President he had great in- 
fluence; he had long been an advocate of mercy 
toward the South, and he did much to persuade the 
President to the course he followed in restoring the 
southern states to the Union, without reference to 
the wishes of Congress. Even John Sherman pro- 
nounced the plan " wise and judicious," but Stevens, 
Sumner, and their powerful coterie in Congress 
violently opposed it, and Seward came in for his 
share of the vituperation and bitter accusation which 
the plan called forth. Johnson's defeat closed his 
political career, and the last years of his life were 
spent in travel. 

The very cause of his downfall marks him as the 
greatest of the three, for he placed justice above 
expediency, and not even the attempt upon his life 
changed his feeling toward the South. Perhaps the 
wisdom of his judgment was never better exemplified 
than in his purchase from Russia of the great ter- 

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A Guide to Biograpliy 

ritory known as Alaska, for tlie sum of $7,200,000. 
Alaska was regarded at the time as an icy desert of 
no economic value, but time has changed that esti- 
mate, and the discovery of gold there made it one 
of the richest of the country's possessions. 

Outside of Seward, Sumner and Stevens, the most 
prominent public man of the time was Salmon P. 
Chase, an Ohioan who had for many years taken 
an important part in the anti-slavery controversy. 
Although sent to the Senate in 1849 as a Democrat, 
he left the party on the nomination of Pierce in 
1852, when it stood committed to the support and 
extension of slavery. Three years later, he was 
elected governor of Ohio by the Republicans. He 
was Lincoln's secretary of the treasury, and financed 
the country during its most trying period in a way 
that compelled the admiration even of his enemies. 
He served afterwards as Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, dying in 1873. He was another man whose 
life was embittered by failure to attain the prize 
of the presidency. Three times he tried for it, in 
1860, in 1864, and in 1868, but he never came 
within measurable distance of it. For he lacked the 
capacity for making friends, and repelled rather than 
attracted by a studiously impressive demeanor, a 
painful decorousness, and an unbending dignity, 
which was, of course, no true dignity at all, but 
merely a bad imitation of it. In a word, he lacked 
the saving sense of humor — the quality which en- 
deared Abraham Lincoln to the whole nation. 

Another Ohioan who loomed large in the history 

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Statesmen 

of the time was John Sherman, a lawyer like all the 
rest, a member of Congress since 1855, not at first a 
great opponent of slavery, but drawn into the battle 
by his allegiance to the Republican party, forming 
an alliance with Thaddeus Stevens, and collaborating 
with him in the production of the reconstruction act. 
He was appointed secretary of the treasury by Presi- 
dent Hayes, in 1876, and his great work for the 
country was done in that office, in re-establishing 
the credit which the Civil War had shaken. He, 
also, was bitten by the presidential bacillus, and was 
a candidate for the nomination at three conventions, 
but each time fell short of the goal — once when he 
had it seemingly Avithin his grasp. A stern, forceful, 
capable man, he left his impress upon the times. 

Of the men who guided the fortunes of the Con- 
federacy, only two need be mentioned here — Jeffer- 
son Davis and Alexander H. Stephens; for, rich as 
the Confederacy was in generals, it was undeniably 
poor in statesmen. The golden age of the .South 
had departed; with John C. Calhoun passed away 
the last really commanding figure among Dixie's 
statesmen, and from him to Jefferson Davis is a long 
step downward. 

Davis's early life was romantic enough. Born in 
1808 in Kentucky, of a father who had served in 
the Revolution, appointed to the ^National Military 
Academy by President Monroe; graduating there in 
1828 and serving through the Black Hawk war; 
then abruptly resigning from the army to elope with 

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A Guide to Biography 

the daughter of Colonel Zachary Taylor, and settling 
near A^icksburg, Mississippi, to embark in cotton 
planting; drawn irresistibly into politics and sent to 
Congress, but resigning to accept command of the 
First Mississippi Rifles and serving with great dis- 
tinction through the war with Mexico; and, finally, 
in 1847, sent to the Senate — such was Davis's history 
up to the time he became involved in the maelstrom 
of the slavery question. 

From the first, he was an ardent advocate of the 
state-rights theory of government, and the right of 
secession, and for thirteen years he defended these 
theories in the Senate, gradually emerging as the 
most capable advocate the South possessed. That 
fiery and impulsive people, looking always for a hero 
to worship, found one in Jefferson Davis, and he 
soon gained an immense prestige among them. On 
January 9, 1861, his state seceded from the Union, 
and he withdrew from the Senate. Before he reached 
home, he was elected commander-in-chief of the Army 
of the Mississippi, and a few days later, he was cho- 
sen President of the Confederate States. 

From the first, his task was a difficult one, and it 
grew increasingly so as the war went on. That he 
performed it well, there can be no question. He was 
the government, was practically dictator, for he 
dominated the Confederate Congress absolutely, and 
its principal business was to pass the laws which he 
prepared. Only toward the close of the w^ar did it, 
in a measure, free itself from this control, and, 
finally, in 1865, it passed a resolution attributing 

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Confederate disaster to Davis's incompetency as 
commander-in-cliief, a position wliich he had insisted 
on occupying; removing him from that position and 
conferring it upon General Lee, giving the latter, at 
the same time, unlimited powers in disposing of the 
army. 

But it was too late. Even Lee himself could not 
ward off the inevitable. On the morning of Sunday, 
April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis sat in his pew at 
church in the city of Richmond, when an officer 
handed him a telegram. It was from Lee, and read, 
" Richmond must be evacuated this evening." Lee 
had fought and lost the battle of Petersburg, and 
was in full retreat. Davis left the church quietly, 
called his cabinet together, packed up the govern- 
ment archives, and boarded a train for the South. 
For over a month, he moved from place to place 
endeavoring to escape capture, his party melting 
away until it comprised only his family and a few 
servants; and finally, on May 9th, he was surprised 
and taken by a company of Union cavalry near 
Irwinsville, in southern Georgia. Davis was im- 
prisoned at Fortress Monroe for two years — a thor- 
oughly senseless procedure which only served to keep 
open a painful wound — and on Christmas Day, 1868, 
was pardoned by President Johnson. 

Davis's imprisonment had added immensely to his 
prestige. The South forgot his blunders and short- 
comings, seeing in him only the martyr who had 
suffered for his people, and welcomed him with a 
kind of hysterical adoration, which lasted until his 

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A Guide to Biograpliy 

death. The last years of his life were passed quietly 
on his estate in Mississippi. 

When Davis was chosen President of the Con- 
federacy, Alexander H. Stephens was chosen Vice- 
President. Stephens had also had a picturesque 
career. Left an orphan, without means, at the age 
of fifteen he had nevertheless secured an education, 
and, in 1834, after two months' study, was admitted 
to the Georgia har. He at once began to win a 
more than local reputation, for he was a man of 
unusual ability, and in 1836, he was elected to the 
Legislature, though an avowed opponent of nullifica- 
tion. 

Seven years later, he was sent to Congress, and 
continued to oppose the secession movement; but 
he saw whither things were trending, and in 1859 he 
resigned from Congress, remarking that he knew 
there was going to be a smash-up and thought he 
would better get off while there was time. In 1860 
he made a great Union speech ; and it is a remarkable 
proof of the hold he had upon the people of the 
South, that, in spite of this, and of his well-known 
convictions, he was chosen Vice-President of the 
Confederacy a year later. He accepted, but within 
a year he had quarrelled with Jefferson Davis on the 
question of state rights, and in 1864, organized the 
Georgia Peace party. From that time on to the 
close of the war, he labored to bring about a treaty 
of peace, but in vain. 

He was imprisoned for a few months after the 
downfall of the Confederacy, but was soon released 

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and was prominent in the political life of Georgia 
for fifteen years thereafter, being governor of the 
state at the time of his death in 1883. A more 
contradictory, obstinate, prickly-conscienced man 
never appeared in American politics. 

So passed the era of the Civil "War. Have we 
had any great statesmen since? Some near-great 
ones, perhaps, but none of the very first rank. Great 
men are moulded by great events, or, at least, re- 
quire great events to prove their greatness. Let us 
pause a moment, however, to pay tribute to one of 
the most accomplished party leaders in American 
history — a man almost to rank with Henry Clay — 
James G. Blaine. 

As a young editor from Maine, he had entered 
Congress in 1863. There he had encountered an- 
other fiery youngster in Roscoe Conkling, and an 
intense rivalry sprang up between them. They were 
very different in temperament, Blaine being the more 
popular, Conkling the more brilliant. Blaine had a 
genius for making friends and keeping them; Conk- 
ling's quick temper and hasty tongue frequently 
cost him his most powerful adherents. Three years 
later, this rivalry came to an open clash, in which 
each denounced the other on the floor of the House 
in words as stinging as parliamentary law permitted. 
Blaine's tirade was so bitter that Conkling became 
an implacable enemy and never again spoke to him. 
It was almost the story of Hamilton and Burr over 
again, except that the age of duelling had passed. 

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A Guide to Biography 

That quarrel on the floor of the House was to 
have momentous consequences. Blaine became 
speaker of the House and the most popular and 
powerful man in his party, so that it seemed that 
nothing could stand between him and the desire 
for the presidency which gnawed at his heart, just 
as it had at Henry Clay's. But always in the way 
stood Conkling. 

In 1876, at Cincinnati, Blaine was nominated by 
Robert G. IngersoU in one of the most eloquent ad- 
dresses ever delivered on the floor of a national 
convention, and on the first ballot fell only a few 
votes short of a majority. But his enemies were at 
work, and on the seventh ballot, succeeded in stam- 
peding the convention to Rutherford B. Hayes. 
Hayes, however, was pledged to a single term, and 
Blaine was hailed as the nominee in 1880; but when 
the convention assembled, there was Conkling with 
a solid phalanx of over three hundred delegates for 
Grant. The result was that neither Blaine nor Grant 
could get a majority of the votes, and the nomination 
fell to Garfield. Finally, by tireless work, Blaine 
laid his plans so well that he secured the nomination 
four years later, only to have ISTew York State thrown 
against him by Conkling and to go down to defeat. 
Conkling had his revenge, and Blaine's career was 
practically at an end, for he was an old and broken 
man. 

Let us add frankly that there were many within 
his own party Avho mistrusted him — who believed 
him insincere, if not actually dishonest, and refused 

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Statesmen 

to support liim. For a fourth time, in 1892, lie at- 
tempted to get tlie nomination, but his name had 
lost its wizardry, and he was defeated by Benjamin 
Harrison. There are few more pitiful stories in 
American politics than that of this brilliant and 
able man, consumed by the desire for a great prize 
which seemed always within his grasp and yet which 
always eluded him. For a quarter of a century, he 
chased this will-o'-the-wisp, only to be led by it into 
a bog and left to perish there. 

There are a few names on the later pages of Am- 
erican statesmanship which stand for notable achieve- 
ment, more especially in the line of diplomacy, the 
two greatest of which are those of John Hay and 
Elihu Root. Both of these men, as secretary of state, 
did memorable work; not the sort of work which 
appeals to popular imagination, for there was noth- 
ing spectacular about it; but quiet and effective 
work in the forming of informal alliances and trea- 
ties mth foreign nations, maintaining America's 
position as a world power, and making her the friend 
of all the world. That is the position she should 
occupy, since she has no quarrel with any one; and 
it is with its maintenance that the statesmanship of 
the present day is principally concerned. 

So we close this chapter on American Statesmen. 
It is a tragic chapter — tragic because of thwarted 
ambitions, and unfulfilled desires. Of them all, Ben- 
jamin Franklin was the only one whose life was from 

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first to last happy and contented, who realized his 
ideals and who died in peace; and this, I think, be- 
cause he asked nothing for himself, hungered for no 
preferment, was consumed by no ambition, sacri- 
ficed nothing to expediency, but accepted life with 
large philosophy and never-failing humor, realizing 
that in serving others he was best serving himself, 
and whose inward peace was manifest in his placid 
and smiling countenance. Upon the rocks of am- 
bition the greatest of those who followed him dashed 
themselves to pieces. 

SUMMARY 

Franklin, Benjamin. Born at Boston, January 
17, 1706; established the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1729; 
founded Philadelphia library, 1731; began publication 
of ^^ Poor Eichard's Almanac," 1732; postmaster of 
Philadelphia, 1737; founded American Philosophical 
Society and University of Pennsylvania, 1743; demon- 
strated by means of a kite that lightning is a discharge 
of electricity, 1752; deputy postmaster-general for 
British colonies in America, 1753-74; colonial agent 
for Pennsylvania in England, 1757-75; elected to sec- 
ond Continental Congress, 1775 ; ambassador to France, 
1776-85; negotiated treaty with France, February 6, 
1778; concluded treaty of peace with England, in con- 
junction with Jay and Adams, September 3, 1783; 
returned to America, 1785; President of Pennsylvania, 
1785-88; delegate to Constitutional Convention, 1787; 
died at Philadelphia, April 17, 1790. 

Adams, Samuel. Born at Boston, September 27, 
1722; delegate to first and second Continental Con- 

208 



Statesmen 

gress, 1775-76; lieutenant-governor of Massaclinsetts, 
1789-94; governor of Massachusetts, 1794-97; died at 
Boston, October 2, 1803. 

Hancock, John. Born at Quincy, Massachusetts, 
January 12, 1837; President of the Provincial Con- 
gress, 1774-75; President of Continental Congress, 
1775-77; governor of Massachusetts, 1780-85 and 
1787-93; died at Quincy, October 8, 1793. 

Henry, Patrick. Born at Studley, Hanover Coun- 
ty, Virginia, May 20, 1736; admitted to the bar, 1760; 
entered Virginia House of Burgesses, 1765; member of 
Continental Congress, 1774; of Virginia Convention, 
1775; governor of Virginia, 1776-79 and 1784-86; 
died at Eed Hill, Charlotte County, Virginia, June 6, 
1799. 

Hamilton, Alexander. Born in the island of 
Nevis, West Indies, January 11, 1757; settled in New 
York, 1772; entered Continental service as captain of 
artillery, 1776; on Washington's staff, 1777-81; mem- 
ber of Continental Congress, 1782-83; of the Constitu- 
tional Convention, 1787; secretary of the treasury, 
1789-95; appointed commander-in-chief of the army, 
1799; mortally wounded in a duel with Aaron Burr, 
July 11, 1804, and died the following day. 

Burr, Aaron. Born at Newark, New Jersey, Febru- 
ary 6, 1756; served with distinction in the Canada 
expedition in 1775 and at Monmouth in 1778; began 
practice of law in New York, 1783 ; United States sen- 
ator, 1791-97; Vice-President, 1801-05; killed Alex- 
ander Hamilton in a duel, July 11, 1804; in 1805, 
conceived plan of conquering Texas and perhaps 
Mexico and establishing a great empire in the South- 

209 



A Guide to Biography 

west; arrested in Mississippi Territory, January 14, 
1807; indicted for treason at Eichmond, Virginia, May 
22, and acquitted, September 1, 1807; died at Port 
Eichmond, Staten Island, September 14, 1836. 

Marshall, John. Born in Fauquier County, Vir- 
ginia, September 24, 1755; served in the Eevolution; 
United States envoy to France, 1797-98; member of 
Congress, 1799-1800; secretary of state, 1800-01; 
chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, 
1801-35; died at Philadelphia, July 6, 1835. 

Clay, Henry. Born in Hanover County, near Eich- 
mond, Virginia, April 12, 1777; United States sena- 
tor from Kentucky, 1806-07 and 1809-11; member of 
Congress, 1811-21 and 1823-25; peace commissioner at 
Ghent, 1814; candidate for President, 1824; secretary 
of state, 1825-29; senator, 1832-42 and 1849-52; 
Whig candidate for President, 1832 and 1844; chief 
designer of the ^' Missouri Compromise " of 1820, of 
the compromise of 1850, and of the compromise tariff 
of 1832-33; died at Washington, June 29, 1852. 

Webster, Daniel. Born at Salisbury, now Frank- 
lin, New Hampshire, January 18, 1782; graduated at 
Dartmouth College, 1801; admitted to the bar at Bos- 
ton, 1805; Federalist member of Congress from New 
Hampshire, 1813-17; removed to Boston, 1816; mem- 
ber of Congress from Massachusetts, 1823-27; Whig 
United States senator, 1827-41; received several elec- 
toral votes for President, 1836, and unsuccessful can- 
didate for Whig nomination until death; secretary of 
state, 1841-43; senator, 1845-50; secretary of state, 
1850-52; died at Marshfield, Massachusetts, October 
24, 1852, 

210 



Statesmen 

Calhoun, John Caldwell. Born in Abbeville 
District, South Carolina, March 18, 1782; graduated at 
Yale, 1804; admitted to the bar, 1807; member of the 
South Carolina general assembly, 1808-09 ; member of 
Congress, 1811-17; secretary of war in Monroe's cab- 
inet, 1817-24; Vice-President, 1825-33; United States 
senator, 1832-43; secretary of state under Tyler, 1844- 
45; re-elected to the Senate of which he remained a 
member until his death, at Washington, March 31, 1850. 

Benton, Thomas Hart. Born at Hillsborough, 
North Carolina, March 14, 1782; United States sena- 
tor from Missouri, 1821-51; member of Congress, 
1853-55; died at Washington, April 10, 1858. 

Cass, Lewis. Born at Exeter, New Hampshire, 
October 9, 1782; served in the second war with Eng- 
land; governor of Michigan Territory, 1813-31; sec- 
retary of war, 1831-36; minister to France, 1836-42; 
United States senator, 1845-48; Democratic candidate 
for President, 1848; senator, 1849-57; secretary of 
state, 1857-60; died at Detroit, Michigan, June 17, 
1866. 

Douglas, Stephen Arnold. Born at Brandon, 
Vermont, April 23, 1813; judge of the Supreme Court 
of niinois, 1841; member of Congress, 1843-47; 
United States senator, 1847-61; Democratic candidate 
for President, 1860; died at Chicago, June 3, 1861. 

Everett, Edward. Born at Dorchester, Massachu- 
setts, April 11, 1794; professor of Greek at Harvard, 
1819-25; editor the North American Review, 1819- 
24; member of Congress, 1825-35; governor of Massa- 
chusetts, 1836-40; minister to England, 1841-45; 
president of Harvard College, 1846-49; secretary of 

211 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

state, 1852-53; senator, 1853-51; candidate of Con- 
stitutional Union party for Vice-President, 1860; died 
at Boston, January 15, 1865. 

Stevens, Thaddeus. Born in Caledonia County, 
Vermont, April 4, 1792; graduated at Dartmouth Col- 
lege, 1814; removed to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and 
admitted to the bar, 1816; Whig member of Congress, 
1849-53; Eepublican member of Congress, 1859-68; 
proposed impeachment of President Jolmson, 1868; 
died at Washington, April 11, 1868. 

Sumner, Charles. Born at Boston, January 6, 
1811; graduated at Harvard, 1830; admitted to the 
bar, 1834; United States senator, 1851-74; assaulted 
in Senate chamber by Preston Brooks, May 22, 1856; 
chairman of committee on foreign affairs, 1861-71; 
died at Washington, March 11, 1874. 

Seward, William Henry. Born at Florida, Orange 
County, New York, May 16, 1801; graduated at Union 
College, 1820; admitted to the bar, 1822; member State 
Senate, 1830-34; Whig governor of New York, 1838- 
43; United States senator, 1849-61; candidate for 
Republican nomination for President, 1860; secretary 
of state, 1861-69; died at Auburn, New York, October 
10, 1872. 

Chase, Salmon Portland. Born at Cornish, New 
Hampshire, January 13, 1808; United States senator 
from Ohio, 1849-55; governor of Ohio, 1856-60; sec- 
retary of the treasury, 1861-64; chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court, 1864-73 ; died at New York City, May 
7, 1873. 

Sherman, John. Born at Lancaster, Ohio, May 10, 
1833; admitted to the bar, 1844; Eepublican member 

212 



Statesmen 

of Congress from Ohio, 1855-61; senator, 1861-77; 
secretary of the treasury, 1877-81; senator, 1881-97; 
secretary of state, 1897-98; candidate for presidential 
nomination in 1884 and 1888; died at Washington, 
October 22, 1900. 

Davis, Jefferson. Born in Christian County, 
Kentucky, June 3, 1808; graduated at West Point, 
1828; Democratic member of Congress from Miss- 
issippi, 1845-46; served in Mexican war, 1846-47; 
United States senator, 1847-51; secretary of war, 
1853-57; senator, 1857-61; resigned his seat, January 
21, 1861; inaugurated President of the Confederacy, 
February 22, 1862; arrested near Irwinsville, Georgia, 
May 10, 1865; imprisoned at Fortress Monroe, Vir- 
ginia, 1865-67; amnestied, 1868; died at New Orleans, 
December 6, 1889. 

Stephens, Alexander Hamilton. Born near 
Crawfordville, Georgia, February 11, 1812; graduated 
at University of Georgia, 1832; member of State leg- 
islature, 1836; member of Congress, 1843-59; Vice- 
President of the Confederacy, 1861-65; imprisoned in 
Fort Warren, Boston harbor, May-October, 1865; 
member of Congress, 1873-82; governor of Georgia, 
1883 ; died at Atlanta, Georgia, March 4, 1883. 

Blaine, James Gillespie. Born at West Browns- 
ville, Pennsylvania, January 31, 1830; member of 
Congress from Maine, 1862-76; senator, 1876-81; 
secretary of state, 1881 and 1889-92; unsuccessful can- 
didate of Republican party for President, 1884; died 
at Washington, January 27, 1893. 



213 



CHAPTER VI 

PIONEERS 

THE settlers in America did not find an unoc- 
cupied country of which they were free to take 
possession, but a land in which dwelt a savage and 
warlike people, who had been named Indians, because 
the first voyagers supposed that it was the Indies 
they had discovered. The name has clung, in spite 
of the attempts of scientists to fasten upon them the 
name Amerinds, to distinguish them from the inhab- 
itants of India. Indians they will probably always 
remain, a standing evidence of the confusion of 
thought of the early voyagers. 

That the Indians owned the country there can 
be no question ; but civilization has never stopped to 
consider the claims of savage peoples, and it did not 
in this case. Might made right ; besides, the Indians, 
consisting of scattered, semi-nomadic tribes, seemed 
to have no use for the great territory they occupied. 
Indeed, they themselves, at first, welcomed the white- 
skinned newcomers; but they soon grew jealous of 
encroachments which never ceased, and at last fought 
step by step for their country. They were driven 
back, defeated, exterminated. But in the early years, 
no settlement was safe, and every man was, in a 
sense, a pioneer. 

214 



Pioneers 

The French, in their eagerness for empire, allied 
themselves with the Indians, supplied them with 
arms, and offered a bounty for scalps; and for nearly 
three quarters of a century, a bitter and bloody 
contest was waged, which ended only with the ex- 
pulsion of the French from the continent. Deprived 
of their ally, the Indians retreated beyond the moun- 
tains, where their war parties gathered to drive back 
the white invader. Those years on the frontier de- 
veloped a race of men accustomed to danger and 
ready for any chance; and towering head and 
shoulders above them all stands the mighty figure of 
Daniel Boone, the most famous of American pio- 
neers. About him cluster legends and tales innumer- 
able, some true, many false ; but one thing is certain : 
for boldness, cunning and knowledge of woodcraft 
and Indian warfare he had no equal. 

Born in Pennsylvania, but moving at an early age 
to the little frontier settlement of Holman's Ford, 
in North Carolina, the boy had barely enough school- 
ing to enable him to read and write. His real books 
were the woods, and he studied them until they held 
no secrets from him. He was a born hunter, a lover 
of the wild life of the forest, impatient of civiliza- 
tion, and truly at home only in the wilderness. The 
cry of the panther, the war-whoop of the Indian, 
were music to him; that was his nature — to love ad- 
venture, to court danger, to welcome the thrill of the 
pulse which peril brings. Understand him: he was 
not the man to incur foolish risks; but he incurred 
necessary ones without a second thought. He was 

215 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

near deatli no doubt a hundred times, yet lived to 
die in his bed. But he was at his best, he really 
lived, only when the wilderness held him and when 
his life depended upon his care and watchfulness. 

In 1755, Boone married and built a log cabin far 
up the Yadkin, where he had no neighbors; but as 
the years passed, other families settled near; the 
smoke of other cabins rose above the woods; his 
fields were bounded by rude fences; he could scarcely 
stir out without encountering some neighbor. It 
was too crowded for Daniel Boone; he felt the 
same sensation that your nature lover feels to-day 
in the midst of a teeming city — a sense of suffoca- 
tion and disgust — and he finally determined to move 
still further westward, and to cross the mountains 
into Kentucky, concerning whose richness many 
stories had reached his ears. He persuaded six men 
to accompany him, and on the first day of May, 
1769, set forth on the perilous journey which was 
to mark the beginning of his life-work. 

Up to that time, the Alleghany Mountains had 
marked a boundary beyond which white settlers 
dared not go, for to the west lay great reaches of 
forest, uninhabited except for wild beasts and still 
wilder bands of roving Indians. Into this forest, 
Boone and his companions plunged, and after some 
weeks of wandering, emerged into the beautiful and 
fertile country of Kentucky — a country not owned 
by any Indian tribe, but visited only by wandering 
war- and hunting-parties from the nations living 
north of the Ohio or south of the Tennessee. The 

216 




BOONE 



Pioneers 

party found game in abundance, especially great 
droves of buffalo, and spent some months in himting 
and exploring. A roving war-party stumbled upon 
one of Boone's companions, and fortliwitli killed 
bim; a second soon met the same fate, and Boone 
himself had more than one narrow escape. The 
danger grew so great, that the other members of the 
party returned over the mountains, and Boone was, 
for a time, left alone, as he himself put it, " without 
company of any fellow-creature, or even a horse or 
dog." 

His brother joined him after a time, and the two 
spent the winter together. Game furnished abundant 
food, and the only danger was from the Indians, but 
that was an ever-present one. Sometimes they slept 
in hollow trees, at other times, they changed their 
resting-place every night, and after making a fire, 
would go off for a mile or two in the woods to 
sleep. Unceasing vigilance was the price of safety. 
When spring came, Boone's brother returned over 
the mountains, and again he was left alone. Three 
months later the brother came back, bringing a party 
of hunters, but no one w^as inclined to settle in so 
dangerous a locality, the struggle to possess which 
was so fierce that it became known as " the dark and 
bloody ground." 

In 1773, Boone himself started to lead a band 
of settlers over the mountains, but while passing 
through the frowning defiles of the Cumberland Gap, 
they were attacked by Indians and driven back, two 
of Boone's sons being among the slain. Hunting 

217 



A Guide to BIograjDhy 

parties crossed the mountains from time to time after 
that, and made great inroads on the vast herds of 
game, but the Indians were in arms everywhere, and 
not until they had been defeated at the battle of 
Point Pleasant, the bloodiest in the history of Vir- 
ginia with its Indian foe, did they sue for peace. 

The coming of peace marked a new era in the 
development of the western country. Some years 
before, a company of men headed by Pichard Hen- 
derson, had conceived the grandiose project of found- 
ing in the west a great colony, and had purchased 
from the Cherokee Indians a vast tract of land, which 
they named Transylvania. It included all the land 
between the Cumberland and Kentucky rivers, and 
Daniel Boone was selected to blaze a way into the 
wilderness, to mark out a road, and start the first 
settlement. He got a party together, crossed the 
mountains, and on April 1, 1775, began to build a 
fort on the left bank of the Kentucky river, calling 
it Port Boone, afterwards Boonesborough. Some 
settlers moved in, but the outbreak of the Pevolution 
and the consequent renewal of Indian hostilities 
under encouragement from the British put a stop 
to immigration. 

The fort, alone and unprotected in the wilderness, 
was soon attacked by a great war-party, but managed 
to beat off the assailants. Shortly afterwards, while 
leading an expedition to the Blue Licks, on the 
Licking river, to secure a supply of salt, Boone be- 
came separated from his men, and was surprised 
and captured by an Indian war-party. The joy of 

218 



Pioneers 

the savages at this capture may be imagined, for 
they had in their hands their most intrepid foe. 
After being exhibited to the British at Detroit, he 
was brought back to the Indian settlements north of 
the Ohio, and formally adopted into an Indian 
family, for the savages desired, if possible, to make 
this mighty hunter and warrior one of themselves. 
And Boone might have really adopted Indian life, 
which appealed to him in many ways, but one day 
he found that preparations were on foot for another 
great expedition against Boonesborough. Watching 
his opportunity, he managed to escape, and reached 
the fort in time to warn it of the impending attack. 
He covered the distance, 160 miles, in four days, 
eating but a single meal upon the road — a turkey 
which he managed to shoot. 

He came to Boonesborough like one risen from the 
dead. The fort was at once put into a state of de- 
fense, and endured the most savage assault ever 
directed against it, the Indians numbering nearly 
five hundred, while the garrison mustered but sixty- 
five. The siege lasted for nine days, when the Indi- 
ans, despairing of overcoming a resistance so des- 
perate, retired. 

The succeeding years were full of adventure and 
hair-breadth escapes, which cannot even be men- 
tioned here. On one occasion, Boone and his 
brother. Squire, were surprised by Indians; the lat- 
ter was killed and scalped and Boone escaped with 
the greatest difficulty. At the battle of Blue Licks, 
two years later, two sons fought at his side, one of 

219 



A Guide to Biograplij 

wliom was killed and the otlier severely wounded. 
But Boone seemed to bear a cliarmed life. His years 
in the wilderness had developed in him an almost 
supernatural keenness of sight and hearing; and con- 
stant peril from the Indians had made him very care- 
ful. Whenever he went into the woods after game 
or Indians, he had perpetually to keep watch to 
make sure that he was not being hunted in turn. 
Every turkey-call might mean a lurking savage, every 
cracking twig might mean an approaching foe. 

On one occasion, his daughter and two other girls 
were carried off by Indians, and Boone, raising a 
small company, followed the trail of the fugitives 
without resting for two days and a night ; then came 
to where the Indians had killed a buffalo calf and 
were camped around it, never dreaming of danger. 
So Boone and his men crept up on them, shot down 
the Indians and rescued the girls. On still another 
occasion, he was pursued by Indians, who used a 
tracking dog to follow his trail. Boone turned, shot 
the dog, and then made good his escape. Such inci- 
dents might be related by the dozen. 'No wonder 
Boone was considered one of the most valuable men 
on the frontier, and was a very tower of strength in 
defending it against the Indians. 

The end, however, was sad enough. When Ken- 
tucky was admitted to the Union, Boone's titles to 
the land he had laid out for himself were declared 
to be defective; it was all taken from him, and he 
moved first to Ohio, and then to Missouri, where he 
spent his last years. He was hale and hearty almost 

220 



Pioneers 

to the end, leading a hunting-par tj to the mouth of 
the Kansas when he was eightj-two years old, and 
completely tiring out its younger members. !N^early 
at the end of his life. Congress recognized his services 
to his country by granting him eight hundred and 
fifty acres of land in Missouri, and on this grant, 
the last years of his life were spent. Chester Hard- 
ing visited him just before the end and painted a 
portrait of him which remains the best delineation 
of the redoubtable old pioneer, whose striking face 
tells of the resolute will, and unshrinking courage 
which made the settlement of Kentucky possible. 

Scarcely less prominent than Boone on the Ken- 
tucky frontier, and with a career in many ways even 
more adventurous, was Simon Kenton. Born in 
Virginia in 1755, he had grown to young manhood, 
rough and uncultivated, and with little evidence of 
having been raised in a civilized community. At the 
age of sixteen, he had a desperate affray with a 
neighbor named William Yeach, during which he 
caught Yeach around the body, whirled him into 
the air, and dashed him to the ground with such 
violence, that he thought he had broken his neck. 
"Not daring to return home or to linger in the neigh- 
borhood, for fear his crime would be discovered and 
he himself arrested and hanged, he plunged into the 
wilderness and made his way westward over the 
mountains, changing his name to Simon Butler. 

The two or three years following were spent by 
him in roaming along the Ohio valley, sometimes 
alone, sometimes with two or three companions, and 

221 



A Guide to Biography 

always surrounded by danger. On one occasion, his 
camp was surprised by Indians, and he and his com- 
panion were forced to flee for their lives without 
weapons of any kind, and with no clothing but their 
shirts. For six days and nights, they wandered with- 
out fire or food, suffering from the cold, for it was 
the dead of winter, and so torn and lacerated that 
on the last two days they covered only six miles, 
most of it on hands and knees. Staggering and crawl- 
ing forward, they came out at last upon the Ohio 
river, and by good fortune fell in with a hunting- 
party and were saved. 

Kenton's life was full of just such incidents. Daniel 
Boone found in him a most valuable ally, incapable 
of fear and with a knowledge of woodcraft surpassed 
only by Boone himself. Kenton was inside Boone's 
fort whenever it was in danger, and on one occasion 
saved Boone's life. Let us tell the story, for it is 
typical of the border warfare in which both Boone 
and Kenton were so expert. 

One morning, having loaded their guns for a hunt, 
Kenton and two companions were standing in the 
gate of Fort Boone, when two men, who were driv- 
ing in some horses from a near-by field, were fired 
upon by Indians. They fled toward the fort, the 
Indians after them, and one of them was overtaken 
and killed and was being scalped, when Kenton and 
his companions ran up, killed one of the Indians and 
pursued the others to the edge of the clearing. 
Boone, meanwhile, had heard the firing, and came 
hurrying out with reinforcements, only, a moment, 

222 



Pioneers 

later, to be cut off from tlie fort by a strong body 
of savages. There was nothing to do but to cut 
their way back through them, and in the charge, 
Boone received a ball through the leg, breaking the 
bone. As he fell, the Indian leader raised his toma- 
hawk to kill hun, but Kenton, seeing his comrade's 
peril, shot the Indian through the heart, and suc- 
ceeded in dragging Boone inside the fort. 

During the Dunmore war, Kenton ranged the In- 
dian country as a spy, carrying his life in his hand, 
and accompanied George Rogers Clark on his famous 
Illinois campaign. A short time later, with one or 
two others, he started on an expedition to run off 
some horses from the Miami villages, and had nearly 
succeeded, when he was captured. The Indians hated 
him more bitterly than they hated Boone himself, 
and they prepared to enjoy themselves at his ex- 
pense. They bound him to a wild horse and chased 
the horse through the forest until their captive's face 
was torn and bleeding from the lashing of the 
branches ; they staked him down at night so that he 
could not move hand or foot, and when they reached 
their town, the whole population turned out to make 
him run the gauntlet. The Indians formed in a 
double line, about six feet apart, each armed with a 
hea\'y club, and Kenton was forced to run between 
them. He had not gone far when he saw ahead of 
him an Indian with drawn knife, prepared to plunge 
it into him as he passed. By a mighty effort, he 
broke through the line, but was soon recaptured, 
lashed with whips, pelted with stones, branded with 

223 



A Guide to Biography 

red-hot irons, and condemned to be burnt at the 
stake. 

But before killing him, the Indians concluded to 
lend him to other towns to have some sport with, so 
he was taken from town to town, compelled to run 
the gauntlet at each one, and subjected to a varie- 
gated list of tortures. Three or four times, he was 
tied to a stake for the final execution, but each time 
the Indians decided to wait a while longer. Finally, 
an Englishman got the Indians to consent to send 
Kenton for a visit to Detroit, and he spent the winter 
there. Then, with two other captives, and with the 
help of a kind-hearted Irish woman, he managed to 
escape, and made his way back to Kentucky — over 
four hundred miles through the Indian country, nar- 
rowly escaping death a hundred times — in thirty- 
three days. 

There he learned that he need not have fled from 
Pennsylvania, that the man with whom he had 
fought years before was not dead, but had recovered. 
For the first time since his appearance in the west, he 
assumed his real name, and was known thereafter as 
Simon Kenton. Soon afterwards he returned to his 
old home, and brought the whole family back with 
him to Kentucky. One would have thought he had 
had enough of fighting, but he was with Wayne at 
the Fallen timbers and with William Henry Harri- 
son at the battle of the Thames. Sadly enough, the 
last years of this old hero were passed in want. His 
land in Kentucky was taken from him by speculators 
because he had failed to have it properly registered, 

224 



Pioneers 

and he was imprisoned for debt on the spot where he 
had reared the first cabin in northern Kentucky. 

In the spring of 1824, an old, tattered, weather- 
beaten figure appeared on the streets of Frankfort, 
the capital of Kentucky. So strange and wild it 
Avas that a gang of street boys gathered and ran 
hooting after it. Men laughed — till suddenly, one 
of them, looking again, recognized Simon Kenton. 
In a moment a guard of honor was formed, and the 
tattered figure was conducted to the Capitol, placed 
in the speaker's chair, and for the first and only 
time in his life, Simon Kenton received some portion 
of the respect and homage to which his deeds entitled 
him. 

Boone and Kenton, with a handful of hardy and 
fearless pioneers, laid the foundations of Kentucky; 
but in the history of the " Old Northwest," the coun- 
try north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, one 
name stands out transcendent; the name of a man as 
daring, as brave, as resourceful as any on the border 
— George Kogers Clark. He was greater than Boone 
or Kenton in that he had a wider vision; they saw 
only the duties of the present; he saw the possibil- 
ities of the future, and his exploits form one of the 
most thrilling chapters of American history. 

Clark, a Virginian by birth, started out in life 
as a surveyor, and early in 1775, removed to Ken- 
tucky to follow his profession. There was, no doubt, 
plenty of surveying to be done there, since the whole 
country was an uncharted wilderness, but the begin- 

225 



A Guide to Biography 

ning of the Kevolution was accompanied by an im- 
mediate outbreak of Indian hostilities, so serious that 
the very existence of the Kentucky settlements was 
threatened. Soon all but two of them, Boones- 
borough and Harrodsburg, had to be abandoned. 
Boone was, of course, in command at his fort, and 
Clark, who had seen some service in Dunmore's war, 
became the natural leader at Harrod's. His influ- 
ence rapidly increased, and he was chosen as a dele- 
gate to journey to Williamsburg and urge upon 
Virginia the needs of the western colony, which lay 
within her chartered limits. 

Clark set off without delay on the long and danger- 
ous journey, reached Williamsburg, gained an audi- 
ence of Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia, 
and painted the needs of Kentucky in such colors 
that he soon gained the sympathy of the impulsive 
and warm-hearted governor, and together they se- 
cured from the Assembly a large gift of lead and 
powder for the protection of the frontier. More 
than that, they succeeded in making Virginia ac- 
knowledge her responsibility for the new colony by 
constituting it the county of Kentucky. This, it may 
be added, put an end forever to Henderson's dream 
of the independent colony of Transylvania. 

Clark got his powder and ball safe to Harrodsburg 
just in time to repel a desperate Indian assault; but 
it was evident that there would be no safety for the 
Kentucky settlements so long as England controlled 
the country north of the Ohio. All that region 
formed a part of what was known as the Province 

226 



Pioneers 

of Quebec. Here and there dotted through it were 
quaint little towns of French Creoles, the most im- 
portant being Detroit, Vincennes on the Wabash, 
and Kaskaskia and Kahokia on the Illinois. These 
French villages were ruled bj British officers com- 
manding small bodies of regular soldiers, and keep- 
ing the Indians in a constant state of war against 
their Kentucky neighbors, furnishing them with arms 
and ammunition, and rewarding them for every 
expedition they undertook against the Americans. 
They had no idea that any band of Americans which 
could be mustered west of the mountains would dare 
to attack them, and so were careless in their guard, 
and maintained only small garrisons at the various 
forts. 

All this Clark found out by means of spies 
which he sent through the country, and finally, hav- 
ing his plan matured, he went again to Virginia in 
December, 1777, and laid before Governor Henry 
his whole idea, explainiag in detail why he thought 
it could be carried out successfully. Henry was at 
once enthused with it, so daring and full of promise 
he thought it, and he enlisted the aid of Thomas 
Jefferson. The result was that when Clark set out 
on his return journey, it was with orders not only 
to defend Kentucky, but to attack Kaskaskia and the 
other British posts, and he carried with him £1,200 
in paper money, and an order on the commander of 
Fort Pitt for such boats and ammunition as he might 
need. 

With great difficulty, Clark got together a force of 

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A Guide to Biograj)liy 

about a hundred and fifty men, one of wliom was 
Simon Kenton. He could not get many volunteers 
from Kentucky because the settlers there thought 
they had all they could do to defend their own forts 
without going out to attack the enemy's and only 
a few men could be spared. In May, 1778, this little 
force started down the Ohio in flat boats, and land- 
ing just before they reached the Mississippi, marched 
northward against Kaskaskia, where the British com- 
mander of the entire district had his headquarters. 
Clark knew that his force was outnumbered by the 
garrison and that it would be necessary to surprise 
the town. After a six days' march across country, 
he came to the outskirts of the village on the even- 
ing of July 4th, and found a great dance in progress 
in the fort. Waiting until the revelry was at its 
height, Clark advanced silently, surprised the sen- 
tries, and surrounded the fort without causing any 
alarm. Then with his men posted, Clark walked 
forward through the open door, and leaning against 
the wall, watched the dancers, as they whirled 
around by the light of the flaring torches. 

Suddenly an Indian, after looking at him for a 
moment, raised the war-whoop; the dancing ceased, 
but Clark, shouting at the top of his voice to still 
the confusion, bade the dancers continue, asking them 
only to remember that thereafter they were dancing 
under the flag of the United States, instead of that 
of Great Britain. A few moments later, the com- 
mandant was captured in his bed, and the invest- 
ment was complete. The other settlements in the 

228 



Pioneers 

neigliborhood surrendered at once, so that the Illinoia 
country was captured without the firing of a gun. 

But when the news reached the British governor, 
Hamilton, at Detroit, he at once prepared to re- 
capture the country. He had a much larger force 
at his command than Clark could possibly muster, and 
in the fall of the year he advanced against Vincennes 
at the head of over &Ye hundred men. The little 
American garrison was unable to oppose such a force 
and was compelled to surrender. Instead of push- 
ing on against Clark at Kaskaskia, Hamilton dis- 
banded his Indians and sent some of his troops back 
to Detroit, and prepared to spend the winter at 
Yincennes. He repaired the fort, strengthened the 
defenses, and then sat down for the winter, confident 
that wdien spring came, he would again be master 
of the whole Illinois country. 

Clark, at Kaskaskia, realized that it was a question 
of his taking the British or the British taking him, 
and that, if he waited for spring, he would have 
no chance at all; so he gathered together the pick 
of his men, one hundred and seventy all told, and 
early in February, 1779, set out for Vincennes. The 
task before him was to capture a force nearly equal 
to his own, protected by a strong fort well supplied 
for a siege. 

At first the journey was easy enough, for they 
passed across the snowy Illinois prairies, broken oc- 
casionally by great stretches of woodland, but when 
they reached the drowned lands of the Wabash, the 
march became almost incredibly difficult. The ice 

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A Guide to Biograpliy 

had just broken up and everything was flooded; 
heavy rains set in, and when the men were not wad- 
ing through icy water, they were struggling through 
mud nearly knee-deep. After twelve days of this, 
they came to the bank of the Embarass river, only 
to find the country all under water, save one little 
hillock, where they spent the night without food or 
fire. For four days they waited there for the flood to 
retire, with practically nothing to eat; but the rain 
continued and the flood increased, and Clark, finally, 
in desperation, plunged into the water and called to 
his men to follow. All day they waded, and toward 
evening reached a small patch of dry ground, where 
they spent a miserable night. At sunrise Clark 
started on again, through icy water waist-deep, this 
time with the stern command to shoot the first lag- 
gard. Some of the men failed and sank beneath 
the waves, to be rescued by the stronger ones, and 
by the middle of the afternoon they had all got safe 
to land. By good fortune, they captured some Indian 
squaws with a canoe-load of food, and had their first 
meal in two days. Soon afterwards the sun came 
out, and they saw before them the walls of the fort 
they had come to capture. 

The British had no suspicion of their danger, and 
they thought the first patter of bullets against the 
palisades the usual friendly salute from an Indian 
hunting party. But they were soon undeceived, and 
answered the rifles with ineffective fire from their 
two small cannon. All night the fight continued, and 
at dawn an Indian war-party, which had been ravag- 

230 



Pioneers 

ing the Kentucky settlements, entered tlie town, 
ignorant that the Americans had captured it. March- 
ing up to the fort, they suddenly found themselves 
surrounded and seized. In their belts they carried 
the scalps of the settlers — men, women and children 
— they had slain, and, infuriated at the sight, the 
Americans tomahawked the savages, one after an- 
other, before the eyes of the British. 

Then Clark sent to the fort a peremptory sum- 
mons to surrender, adding, that " his men were eager 
to avenge the murder of their relatives and friends 
and would welcome an excuse to storm the fort.'' 
To the British, it seemed a choice between surrender 
and massacre. They had seen the bloody vengeance 
wreaked upon their Indian allies, and they had every 
reason to believe that they would be dealt with in 
the same manner, since it was they who had set the 
Indians on. Clark was himself, of course, in des- 
perate straits, without means for carrying on a suc- 
cessful siege, but the British were far from suspecting 
this, and at ten o'clock on the morning of February 
25, 1Y79, marched out and stacked arms, while 
Clark fired a salute of thirteen guns in honor of the 
colonies, from whose possession the N^orthwest was 
never again to pass. 

For eight years longer, Clark devoted his life to 
protecting the border from British and Indian in- 
vasion. The war over, he returned to Kentucky, 
and took up his abode in a little log cabin on the 
Ohio near Louisville. He was without means, and 
a horrible accident marred his last years, for, while 

231 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

alone in his cabin, lie was stricken with paralysis, 
and fell with one of his legs in the old-fashioned fire- 
place. There was no one to draw him out of danger, 
and before the pain brought him partially to his 
senses, his leg was so badly burned that it had to be 
amputated. There were no anaesthetics in those days, 
but wdiile the leg was being removed, a fife and 
drum corps played its hardest at the bedside, and 
the doughty old warrior kept time to the music with 
his fingers. 

He lived for ten years thereafter, though his 
paralysis never left him. He felt keenly the in- 
gratitude of the Republic which he had served so 
well, and which yet, in his old age, abandoned him 
to w^ant, and the story is told that, when the state 
of Virginia sent him a sword of honor, he thrust it 
into the ground and broke it with his crutch. 

" I gave Virginia a sword when she needed one,'^ 
he said; " but now, when I need bread, she sends me 
a toy! " 

In the settlement of the country north of the Ohio, 
one man, a veteran of the Revolution, was foremost. 
His name was Rufus Putnam, and he was a cousin 
of that Israel Putnam, some of whose exploits we will 
soon relate. He has been well called the " Father of 
Ohio," for he was the founder of the first permanent 
white settlement made within the borders of the 
state. He was born in 1738, at Sutton, Massachu- 
setts, and his early life was a hard and rough one. 
Left an orphan while still a child, he w^as put to 

232 



Pioneers 

work as soon as lie was big enough to be of any use, 
and received practically no education, altliougli lie 
managed to teacli himself to read and w^rite. He 
earned a few pennies by watering horses for travelers, 
and with this money purchased a spelling-book and 
arithmetic. 

He served through the French war and the Rev- 
olution, rendering distinguished service and retir- 
ing with the rank of brigadier-general; and at its 
close, finding that Congress would be unable for a 
long time to pay many of the soldiers for their 
services, he became interested in the suggestion that 
payment be made in land along the Ohio river, and 
offered to lead a band of settlers to their new homes. 
In March, 1786, in Boston, he and some others 
formed the Ohio Company, and one of their direc- 
tors, Manasseh Cutler, a preacher of more than usual 
ability, was selected to lay the company's plan before 
Congress. The result was the famous ordinance of 
1787, providing for the establishment and govern- 
ment of the Xorthwest Territory, of which Arthur 
St. Clair was named governor. Cutler also secured 
a large land grant for the new company, and in the 
following year, Putnam started across the mountains 
with the first band of emigrants. 

They reached the vicinity of Pittsburg after a 
weary journey, and there built a boat which they 
named the Mayflower, and in it floated down the 
river, until they reached the mouth of the Mus- 
kingum. On April 17, 1788, they began the erection 
of a blockhouse, which was to be the nucleus of the 

233 



A Guide to Biography 

new settlement, and a place of defense in case of 
Indian attack. The settlement was named Marietta, 
in honor of Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France; 
it prospered from the first, and in a few years was 
a lively little village. There were Indian alarms at 
first, but General Wayne's victory secured a last- 
ing peace. Putnam served as a brigadier-general in 
Wayne's campaign, and was one of the commissioners 
who negotiated the peace treaty. 

He lived for many years thereafter, and remained 
to the last the leading man of the settlement. He 
was interested in every project for the betterment of 
the new Commonwealth, helped to found the Ohio 
University at Athens, was one of the drafters of the 
state constitution, and founded the first Bible school 
west of the mountains. A venerable figure, he died 
in 1824, having lived to see the valley which he had 
entered a wilderness settled by hundreds of thou- 
sands, and the state which he had helj)ed to found 
become one of the greatest in the Union. 

By the end of the eighteenth century, the country 
between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi was 
fairly well known, first through the explorations of 
such pioneers as Boone and Clark and Kenton, and, 
later on, through, the steady advance of civilization, 
forever throwing new outposts westward. But be- 
yond the great river stretched a mighty wilderness 
whose character and extent were only guessed at. 
The United States, of course, had little interest in it, 
since it belonged to France, and since, east of the 

234 



Pioneers 

river, there were millions of acres as yet unsettled; 
but when, in 1803, President Jefferson purchased it 
of Napoleon Bonaparte for the sum of fifteen million 
dollars, all that was changed. By that purchase, 
the area of the United States was more than dou- 
bled; but there were many people at the time who 
ojDposed the purchase on the ground that the country 
east of the river would never be thoroughly settled 
and that there would be no use whatever for the 
great territory west of it. So mistaken, sometimes, 
is human foresight! 

The President determined that this great addition 
to the E^ation should be explored without delay, and, 
securing from Congress the necessary powers, he 
appointed his private secretary, Captain Meriwether 
Lewis, to head an expedition to the Pacific. 

Lewis was at that time twenty-nine years of age. 
He seems to have been of an adventurous disposi- 
tion for, despite the fact that he inherited a fortune, 
he enlisted in the army as a private as soon as he was 
of age. Five years later, he had risen to the rank 
of captain, and, attracting the attention of President 
Jefferson, he was appointed his secretary. He proved 
to be so capable and enterprising that the President 
selected him for this dangerous and arduous task of 
exploration. With him was associated Lieutenant 
William Clark, a brother of that hardy adventurer, 
George Rogers Clark. 

AYilliam Clark, who was eighteen years younger 
than his famous brother, had joined him in Ken- 
tucky in 1784, at the age of fourteen, and soon be- 

235 



A Guide to Biogi'apliy 

came acquainted with tlie perils of Indian warfare. 
He was appointed ensign in tlie army four years later, 
and rose to tlie rank of adjutant, but was compelled 
to resign from the service in 1796, on account of 
ill-health. He settled at the half-Spanish town of 
St. Louis, and in March, 1804, was appointed by 
President JeJfferson a second lieutenant of artillery, 
with orders to join Caj)tain Lewis in his journey to 
the Pacific. Clark was really the military director 
of the expedition, and his knowledge of Indian 
life and character had much to do with its suc- 
cess. 

The party consisted of twenty-eight men, and in 
the spring of 1804, started up the Missouri, follow- 
ing it until late in October, when they camped for 
the winter near the present site of Bismarck, North 
Dakota. They resumed the journey early in the 
spring, and in May, caught their first glimpse of the 
Rocky Mountains. Reaching the headwaters of the 
Columbia, at last, they floated down its current, and 
on the morning of N^ovember 7, 1806, after a journey 
of a year and a half, full of every sort of hardship 
and adventure, they saw ahead of them the blue ex- 
panse of the Pacific. They spent the winter on the 
coast, and reached St. Louis again in September, 
1807, having traversed over nine thousand miles of 
unbroken wilderness where no white man had ever 
before set foot. It was largely because of this ex- 
pedition that our government was able, forty years 
later, to claim and maintain a title to the state of 
Oregon. 

236 



Pioneers 

Congress rewarded the members of tlie expedition 
with grants of land, and Lewis was appointed gov- 
ernor of Missouri. But the strain of the expedition 
to the Pacific had undermined his health; he be- 
came subject to fits of depression, and on October 
8, 1809, he put an end to his life in a lonely cabin 
near I^ashville, Tennessee, where he had stopped for 
a night's lodging. Clark lived thirty years longer, 
serving as Indian agent, governor of Missouri, and 
superintendent of Indian affairs. 

While Lewis and Clark were struggling across the 
continent, another young adventurer was conducting 
some explorations farther to the east. Zebulon Pike, 
aged twenty-seven, a captain in the regular army, 
was, in 1805, appointed to lead an expedition to the 
source of the Mississippi. He accomplished this, after 
a hard journey lasting nine months; and, a year 
later, leading another expedition to the southwest, 
discovered a great mountain which he named Pike's 
Peak, and, continuing southward, came out on the 
Rio Grande. He was in Spanish territory, and was 
held prisoner for a time, but was finally released 
upon representations from the government at Wash- 
ington. He rose steadily in the service, and in 1813, 
during the second war with England, led an assault 
upon Little York, now Toronto. The town was 
captured, but the fleeing British exploded a powder 
magazine, and General Pike was crushed and killed 
beneath the flying fragments. He died with his head 
on the British flag, which had been hauled down and 
brought to him. 

237 



A Guide to Biography 

The next step to be recorded in the growth of 
the United States is a step variously regarded as in- 
famous or glorious — but it was marked by one of the 
most heroic incidents in history, and dominated by 
the picturesque and remarkable personality of Sam 
Houston. 

The purchase of Louisiana from the French 
brought the United States in direct contact with 
Mexico, which claimed a great territory in the south- 
west, and, finally, in 1819, a line betw^een the pos- 
sessions of the two countries was agreed upon. It 
left Mexico in possession of the wide stretch of coun- 
try' now included in the states of California, IN^evada, 
Utah, Colorado, Arizona, I^ew Mexico, Oklahoma, 
and Texas. Most of this country was practically 
unknown to Americans, and the great stretches of 
arid land which comprised large portions of it were 
considered worthless and uninhabitable. But a good 
many Americans had drifted across the border into 
the fertile plains of Texas, and settled there. As 
time went on, the stream of immigration increased, 
until there were in the country enough American 
settlers to take a prominent part in the revolt of 
Mexico against Spain in 1824. The revolt was suc- 
cessful, and the country wdiich had discovered the 
!N'ew World lost her last foothold there. 

The settlers in Texas, coming as they did largely 
from the southern states, were naturally slave-hold- 
ers, but in 1829, Mexico abolished slavery, an action 
which greatly enraged them. It is startling to re- 
flect that a country which we consider so inferior 

238 



Pioneers 

to ourselves should have preceded us by over thirty 
years in this great step forward in civilization. In 
other ways, the Mexican yoke was not a pleasant one 
to the Texans, and within a few years, the whole 
country was in a state of seething insurrection. Presi- 
dent Jackson was eager to annex Texas, whose value 
to the Union he fully recognized, and offered Mexico 
■^ve million dollars for the province, but the offer 
was refused. Such was the condition of affairs when, 
in 1833, Sam Houston appeared upon the scene. 

The story of the life of this extraordinary man 
reads like a fable. Born in Virginia in 1793, he 
was taken to Tennessee at the age of thirteen, and 
promptly began his career by running away from 
home and joining the Cherokee Indians. When his 
family found him, he refused to return home, and 
the next seven years were spent largely in the wilder- 
ness with his savage friends. The wild life was 
congenial to him, and he grew up rough and head- 
strong and healthy. Then the Creek war broke out, 
and Houston enlisted with Andrew Jackson. One 
incident of that war gives a better insight into Hous- 
ton's character than volumes of description. At the 
battle of the Horseshoe, where the Creeks made a 
desperate stand, a barbed arrow struck Houston in 
the thigh and sank deep into the flesh. He tried to 
pull it out and failed. 

"Here," he called to a comrade, "pull out this 
arrow." 

The other took hold of the shaft of the arrow and 
pulled with all his might, but could not dislodge it. 

239 



A Guide to Biograplij 

" I can't get it out/' lie said, at last. 

" Oh, yes, you can ! " cried Houston, and raised 
Ms sword. " Pull it out, or it'll be worse for 
you!" 

The soldier saw he was in earnest, and, taking 
hold of the arrow again, gave it a mighty wrench. 
It came out, but the barbs of the arrow tore the 
flesh badly. Houston, however, paused only to tie 
up the wound roughly, and hurried back into the 
fight, though Jackson ordered him to the rear. Be- 
fore long, two bullets struck him down, and he 
lay between life and death for many days. 

Such desperate valor was exactly after " Old Hick- 
ory's " heart, and from that time forward, Jackson 
was Houston's friend and patron. In 1818, he man- 
aged to gain admittance to the bar, and his rise was 
so rapid that within five years he had been elected 
to Congress, and four years later governor of Ten- 
nessee. Then came the strange catastrophe which 
nearly wrecked his life. 

Houston was, after Andrew Jackson, the most 
popular man in the state. He resembled the hero of 
ISTew Orleans in many ways, being rough, rude, hot- 
headed and honest — just the sort of man to appeal 
to the people among whom his lot was cast. When, 
therefore, in January, 1829, while governor of the 
state, he married Miss Eliza Allen, a member of one 
of the most prominent families in it, everybody 
wished him well, and the wedding was a great affair. 
But scarcely was the honeymoon over, when he sent 
his bride back to her parents, resigned the governor- 

240 



Pioneers 

ship, and, refusing to give any explanation of liis 
conduct, plunged into the wilderness to the west. 

Perhaps the most characteristic feature of frontier 
society is its chivalry toward women, and Houston's 
conduct brought about his head a perfect storm of 
indignation, l^o doubt he had many enemies who 
welcomed the opportunity to wreck his fame, and 
who gladly added their voices to the uproar. Prom 
the most popular man, he became the most hated, and 
it would have been dangerous for him to venture 
back within the state's borders. ITot until after 
his death, did his wife give any explanation of his 
conduct. She stated that he had discovered that she 
loved another, and that he had deserted her so that 
she could secure a divorce on the ground of abandon- 
ment. That explanation, lame as it is, is the only 
one ever offered by either of the principals. 

Meanwhile, Houston had joined his old friends, 
the Cherokees, now living in Arkansas Territory, and 
asked to be admitted to the tribe. The Indians ex- 
pressed the opinion that he should have beaten his 
wife instead of abandoning her, but nevertheless 
adopted him, and for three years he lived their life, 
dressing, fighting, hunting and drinking precisely like 
any Indian. The papers, meanwhile, were filled with 
surmises concerning him. 'No one understood why 
he should have exiled himself, and it was reported 
that he intended to lead the Cherokees into Texas, 
conquer the country and set up a government of his 
own. President Jackson wrote to him, protesting 
against ^^ any such chimerical, visionary scheme," 

241 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

which, needless to say, Houston had never enter- 
tained. These rumors grew so annoying, that he is- 
sued a proclamation offering a prize ^' To the Author 
of the Most Elegant, Refined, and Ingenious Lie or 
Calumny " about him. 

The trouble culminated when Houston, having 
gone to Washington to plead for his friends, the 
Indians, caned a member of Congress who had 
slandered him on the floor of the House. He was 
arrested, and arraigned before the bar of the House 
for " breach of privilege," and was reprimanded by 
the Speaker and fined five hundred dollars — a fine 
which President Jackson promptly remitted, remark- 
ing that a few more examples of the same kind would 
teach Congressmen to keep civil tongues in their 
heads. Houston's comment on the affair was, " I 
was dying out once, and, had they taken me before 
a justice of the peace and fined me ten dollars for 
assault and battery, it would have killed me; but 
they gave me a national tribunal for a theatre and 
it set me up again." 

It did " set him up " in earnest. The President, 
who always had a warm place in his heart for him, 
helped by sending him — not, perhaps, without some 
insight into the future — to Texas, to examine into 
the value of that country, in case the United States 
should decide to buy it. "What Jackson's private 
instructions were can only be surmised, but, certainly, 
Houston showed no hesitation or uncertainty after 
he reached the scene. 

On December 10, 1832, he crossed into Mexican 

242 



Pioneers 

territory, and was soon at tlie head of the Texas 
insurrectionists, who had determined to establish a 
government of their own, and who found in Houston 
a leader after their own hearts. Armed collisions 
between Texans and Mexican troops became of com- 
mon occurrence, and the spirit of revolt spread so 
rapidly that Santa Anna, dictator of Mexico, sent 
an army under General Cos to pacify the country and 
drive the Americans out. 

It was the spark in the magazine. All Texas 
sprang to arms under such leaders as Houston, 
Austin, Travis, Bonham, Fannin, " Deaf " Smith, 
and " Ben " Milam ; took Goliad, where Milam lost 
his life heading a desperate assault; captured Con- 
ception and San Antonio, until, by the middle of 
December, 1836, not a Mexican soldier was left 
north of the Rio Grande. But Houston, who had 
been appointed commander-in-chief of the Texan 
forces, knew they would return, and bent every effort 
to organize a disciplined army. It was a difficult 
thing to do with the high-tempered and lawless 
elements at hand; everything was disorder and con- 
fusion, and meanwhile came word that Santa Anna 
himself, at the head of an army of six thousand 
men, w^as entering Texas. 

ISTo effective opposition could be offered such an 
army; the San Antonio garrison was entrapped in 
the old mission called The Alamo and killed to the 
last man; Fannin and his force, three hundred and 
fifty strong, were cornered at Goliad and brutally 
shot down in detachments after they had surrendered; 

243 



A Guide to Biography 

and Santa Anna, certain that Texas had been con- 
quered, divided his army into columns to occupy the 
country. Houston only was left, and the fate of 
Texas hung on his little force; he knew he could 
strike but once; if he were defeated, the war for 
independence would end then and there; so he 
watched and waited, gathering together the strag- 
glers, keeping them in heart, laboring like a very 
Hercules. Hundreds of miles away, in Washington, 
old Andrew Jackson, a map of Texas before him, 
followed with his finger the retreat as far as he knew 
it, and paused with in on San Jacinto. 

" Here's the place," he said. " If Sam Houston's 
worth one bawbee, he'll stand here and give 'em a 
fight." 

And so it was. It makes the pulses thrill, even 
yet, the story of that twenty-first of April, 1836; 
how Houston destroyed the bridge behind them, so 
that there could be no retreat, and then, on his great 
gray horse, tried to address his men, but could only 
cry: " Remember The Alamo "; how old Rusk could 
say not even that, but choked with a sob at the 
first word, and waved his hand toward the enemy; 
how the solitary fife struck up, " Will you come to 
the bower I have shaded for you? " while those seven 
hundred gaunt, starved, ragged phantoms, burning 
with rage at the thought of their comrades foully 
slain, deployed on the open prairie and charged the 
unsuspecting Mexican army. It was over in half 
an hour — the enemy annihilated, 630 killed, 200 
wounded, 700 prisoners — among the prisoners Santa 

244 



Pioneers 

Anna himself, begging for mercy. And Aaron Burr, 
dying in New York with the vision of his Texan 
empire still before him, reading, weeks later, the 
news of the victory, cried out, " I was thirty years 
too soon ! '' 

There was never any question, after that, of Texan 
independence; Santa Anna, to save a life forfeited a 
hundred times over, was ready to agree to any terms. 
Houston was a popular hero; Texas was his child, 
and he was unanimously chosen President of the new 
Republic. From the first, Houston, recalling the 
wishes of his old leader, Andrew Jackson, sought 
annexation to the United States, and the debates over 
the question in Congress nearly disrupted the Union. 
For the North feared the effects of such a tremendous 
addition to slave territory, from which three or four 
states might be carved, and so destroy the balance 
of power between North and South. Again, Mexico, 
which still dreamed of reconquering Texas, notified 
the United States that annexation would be con- 
sidered a declaration of war; but Houston pressed 
the question with great adroitness, it was evident 
that Texas really belonged in the Union, and on 
March 1, 1845, Congress passed the resolution of 
annexation, and Houston and Rusk, the heroes of 
San Jacinto, were at once elected senators. 

In the brief but brilliant war with Mexico which 
followed, which is considered more in detail in con- 
nection with the life of Winfield Scott, and which 
resulted in the securing of the great Southwest for 
the United States, Houston played no part, except as 

245 



A Guide to Biography 

a member of tlie Senate, where he remained until 
1859, being defeated finally by a secessionist. For, 
true to the precepts of Jackson, he was from the 
first bitterly opposed to nullification and secession. 
The same year, he was elected governor of Texas, 
turning a Union minority into a triumphant major- 
ity by the wizardry of his personality. He could 
not prevent secession, however, but he refused to 
take the oath to the Confederate government re- 
quired by the legislature and was deposed. Martial 
law being established, an officer one day demanded 
Houston's pass. 

" San Jacinto," he answered, and went on his way, 
nor did any dare molest him. But he was worn out 
and aging fast, and the end came toward the close 
of July, 1863. 

Reference has been made to the capture of the 
old mission at San Antonio known as " The Alamo," 
and a brief account must be given of the remarkable 
group of men who lost their lives there — ^David 
Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barrett Travis. 
Crockett was perhaps the most famous of the three, 
and his name is still more or less of a household 
word throughout the middle West, while some of 
his stories have passed into proverbs. He was the 
most famous rifle shot in the whole country and the 
most successful hunter. Born in Tennessee soon 
after the Revolutionary war, of an Irish father, he 
ran away from home after a few days' schooling, 
knocked about the country, served through the Creek 
war under Andrew Jackson, and gained so much 

246 



Pioneers 

popularity by his hunting stories, with which he held 
great audiences spellbound, that he was elected to 
the State legislature and then to Congress, though 
he had never read a newspaper. In Congress, he 
managed to antagonize Andrew Jackson, not a dif- 
ficult task by any means, with the result that Jack- 
son, who carried Tennessee in his vest pocket, effec- 
tively ended Crockett's political career. Crockett 
left the state in disgust, seeking new worlds to con- 
quer, and hearing of the struggle in Texas, decided 
to join the revolutionists. 

By boat and on horseback, he made his way to- 
ward the distant plains where the Texans were wag- 
ing their life and death struggle against the Mex- 
icans. More than one hairbreadth escape did the old 
hunter have from Indians, desperadoes and wild 
beasts, but he finally got to the neighborhood of 
San Antonio, and fell in with another adventurer, 
a bee-hunter, also on his way to join the Texans. 
They soon learned that a great Mexican army was 
marching on San Antonio, and that the defenders 
of the place had gathered in the old mission called 
" The Alamo." There were only a hundred and fifty 
of them, while the Mexican army numbered four 
thousand ; but they had made up their minds to hold 
the place, a mere shell, utterly unable to withstand 
artillery, or even a regular and well-directed assault. 
It was plain enough that to attempt to defend the 
place against such an overwhelming force was des- 
perate in the extreme, but Crockett and his com- 
panion kept straight on, and were soon inside The 

247 



A Guide to Biography 

Alamo. A few days later, Santa Anna's great army 
camped around it. 

In command of The Alamo garrison was Colonel 
Travis, a young man of twenty-five; an Alabaman, 
admitted to the bar there, but driven out of his native 
state by financial troubles, and casting in his lot with 
the Texas revolutionists, among whom he soon ac- 
quired considerable influence. The third of the trio. 
Colonel Bowie, was a native of Georgia, but had set- 
tled in Louisiana, where, nine years before, he had 
been a participant in a celebrated affray. Two gentle- 
men, becoming involved in a quarrel, decided to 
settle it in approved fashion by a duel, and, accom- 
panied by their friends, among whom was Bowie, 
adjourned to a convenient place and took a shot at 
each other without doing any damage. They were 
about to declare honor satisfied and to shake hands, 
when a dispute arose among their friends, and before 
it was over, fifteen were killed and six were badly 
injured. Bowie distinguished himself by stabbing a 
man to death with a knife made from a large file. 
The weapon was afterwards sent to Philadelphia 
and there fashioned into the deadly knife which has 
ever since been known by his name. The prospect 
of trouble in Texas naturally attracted him, he was 
made colonel of militia there, and dispatched to The 
Alamo with a small force by General Houston early 
in 1836. 

Here, then, in this old and crumbling Spanish 
mission, toward the end of February, were gathered 
a hundred and fifty Texans, a wild and undisciplined 

248 



Pioneers 

band, impatient of restraint or control, but men of 
iron courage and the best shots on the border, with 
Travis in command; while without was the army of 
Santa Anna. On February 24th, Travis, in a letter 
asking for reinforcements, announced the siege and 
added that he would never surrender or retreat. 
Early in March, thirty-two men from Gonzales, 
knowing they were going to well-nigh certain death, 
made their way into the fort, raising its garrison 
to 180. 

Santa Anna demanded unconditional surrender, 
and Travis answered with a cannon-shot; whereat, 
on the morning of the sixth of March, the Mexican 
army stormed the fort from all sides, swarmed in 
through breaches and over the walls, which the 
Texans were too few to man, and a desperate hand- 
to-hand conflict followed. To and fro between the 
shattered walls the fight reeled, each tall Texan the 
centre of a group of foes, fighting with a wild and 
desperate courage; but the odds were too great, and 
one by one they fell, thrust through with bayonets 
or riddled by bullets. Colonel Travis fell, and so 
did Bowie, sick and weak from a wasting disease, 
but rising from his bed, and dying fighting with his 
great knife red with the blood of his foes. At last 
a single man stood at bay. It was Davy Crockett. 

Wounded in a dozen places, ringed about by the 
bodies of the men he had slain, he stood facing his 
foes, his back against a wall, knife in hand, daring 
them to come on. "No one dared to run in upon 
that old lion. So they held him there with their 

249 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

lances, while the musketeers loaded their carbines 
and shot him down. Not a man of the garrison 
was left alive, but each of them had avenged himself 
four times over, for the Mexican loss was over five 
hundred. So ended one of the most heroic events 
in American history. " Thermopylse had its mes- 
sengers of death J The Alamo had none." 

One more era remains to be recorded, that in 
which the United States confirmed its hold upon the 
Pacific coast, and here again the story is that of 
the lives of three men — Marcus Whitman, John 
Augustus Sutter, and John Charles Fremont. It 
was Whitman who brought home to the Nation the 
value of Oregon by a spectacular ride from ocean to 
ocean; it was Sutter who led the way for an Amer- 
ican invasion of California, and who gave impetus 
to that invasion by the discovery of gold; and it was 
Fremont who led the revolution there against the 
Mexicans, and who secured the country's indepen- 
dence. 

The explorations of Lewis and Clark, early in 
the century, had made the country along the Co- 
lumbia river known to the East in a dim way, but 
it was so distant and so inaccessible that it excited 
little interest. Just before the second war with Eng- 
land, John Jacob Astor had attempted to carry out 
a far-reaching plan for the development of the coun- 
try and the securing of its great fur trade, but the 
outbreak of the war had stopped all efforts in that 
direction, and Astor never took them up again. 

250 



Pioneers 

Meanwliile through Canada, the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany, a great English concern engaged in the fur 
trade, had extended its stations to the Pacific coast, 
and was quietly taking possession of the country. 

In 1834, the American board of missions, learn- 
ing of the need for a missionary among the Oregon 
Indians, appointed Marcus Whitman to the work. 
"Whitman was at that time thirty-two years of age 
and was just about to be married. His betrothed 
agreed to accompany him on his perilous mission, 
and, after great difficulty, he secured an associate 
in the person of Kev. H. H. Spalding, also just mar- 
ried. What a bridal trip that was! At Pittsburg, 
George Catlin, who knew the western Indians better 
than any living man, having spent years among them, 
warned them of the folly of attempting to take 
women across the plains; at Cincinnati, they were 
greeted by William Moody, only forty-five years of 
age and yet the first white man born there; at the 
frontier town of St. Louis, they joined a hunting 
expedition up the Missouri, and by June 6, 1836, 
were at Laramie. 

A month later, they crossed the Great Divide by 
the South Pass, " discovered,'^ six years later, by 
Fremont; and toward the end of July, they came 
to the great mountain rendezvous of traders and 
trappers high in the mountains near Port Hall. 
Some of those men had not seen a white woman for 
a quarter of a century. You can imagine, then, what 
a sensation the arrival of Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. 
Spalding occasioned, and with what warmth they 

251 



A Guide to Biograplij 

were welcomed. Ten days tliey tarried there, then 
pressed on westward, and on September 2, 1836, 
after a journey of thirty-five hundred miles, the 
gates of Fort Walla-Walla, on the lower Columbia, 
opened to receive them, and the conquest of Oregon 
began. 

Fort Walla-Walla belonged to the Hudson Bay 
Company, which had undisputed control of the rich 
Oregon fur trade, and which was determined to re- 
tain it at any cost. So the difficulties of the Oregon 
trail were invariably exaggerated, and immigration 
from the states systematically discouraged. Never- 
theless, in the years following Whitman's arrival, 
other parties of missionaries and settlers worked their 
way into the country, until, in 1842, their number 
reached about a hundred and fifty. The Hudson 
Bay Company realized that neither England nor 
America had a clear title to the region, and that its 
population must, in the end, determine its national- 
ity. Consequently it bent every effort to hurry 
English settlers into the country. In October, 1842, 
Whitman was dining with a company of Englishmen 
at Walla-Walla, when a messenger arrived with news 
of the approach of a large body of settlers from 
Canada. A shout arose : " Hurrah for Oregon ! 
America is too late ! We've got the country ! " And 
Whitman, at a glance, saw through the plan. 

Twenty-four hours later, he had started to ride 
across the continent to carry the news to Washing- 
ton. He had caught the import of the news, had 
grasped its consequences, and he was determined that 

252 



Pioneers 

Oregon, with its great forests and broad prairies, its 
mighty rivers, and its unparalleled richness, should 
be saved for the Union. If the IsTation only knew 
the value of the prize, England would never be per- 
mitted to carry it off. His wife and friends protested 
against the desperate venture — four thousand miles 
on horseback — for it would soon be the dead of 
winter, with snow hiding the trail and filling the 
passes, with streams ice-blocked and winter-swollen, 
and last but not least, with the Blackfoot Indians 
on the warpath. But he would listen to none of 
this; his duty, as he conceived it, lay clear before 
him; he was determined to set out at once. Amos 
Lovejoy volunteered to accompany him, a busy night 
was spent in preparation, and the next day they 
were off. 

'No diary of that remarkable journey was kept 
by Dr. Whitman, but most of its incidents are known. 
Terribly severe weather was encountered almost at 
the start, for ten days they were snowed up in the 
mountains, and long before the journey ended, were 
reduced to rations of dog and mule meat. But they 
struggled on, more than once losing the way and 
giving themselves up for lost, and on March 3, 
1843, just ^ve months from Walla-Walla, Whitman 
entered Washington. 

His spectacular ride rivetted public attention upon 
the far western country, and the information which 
he gave concerning it opened the Nation's eyes to 
its value. When he returned, later in the year, to 
the banks of the Columbia, he took back with him 

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A Guide to Biography 

a train of two hundred wagons and a thousand set- 
tlers — a veritable army of occupation which the 
British could not match. Three years later, so 
steadily did the tide continue which Whitman had 
started, the American population had risen to over 
ten thousand, there was never any further real un- 
certainty as to whom Oregon belonged, and the 
treaty of 1846 settled the question for all time. 

The new territory was soon to be the scene of a 
terrible tragedy. The white man had brought new 
diseases into it, measles, fevers, and even smallpox; 
they spread rapidly among the Indians, aggravated 
by their imprudence and ignorance of proper treat- 
ment, and many died. The Indians became con- 
vinced that the missionaries were to blame, and it is 
claimed, too, that the emissaries of the Hudson Bay 
Company urged them on. However that may have 
been, on the twenty-ninth of November, 1847, the 
Indians fell upon the missionaries and killed fifteen 
of them, among the dead being Marcus "Whitman 
and his wife. So ended the life of the man who 
saved Oregon, and of the woman who was the first 
of her sex to cross the continent. 

Meanwhile, far to the south, a drama scarcely less 
thrilling was enacting, its chief personage being John 
Augustus Sutter. Sutter was a Swiss and had re- 
ceived a military education and served in the Swiss 
Guard before coming to America in 1834. He settled 
first at St. Louis and then at Santa Ye, where he 
gained considerable experience as a trader. Finally, 
in 1838, he decided to cross the Kockies, and after 

254 



Pioneers 

trading for a time in a little schooner up and down 
tlie coast, was wrecked in San Francisco Bay. He 
made his way inland, and founded the first white 
settlement in the country on the site of what is now 
Sacramento. Here, in 1841, he built a fort, having 
secured a large grant of land from the Mexican 
Government, and set up what was really a little em- 
pire in the wilderness, over which he reigned 
supreme. And here, three years later, down from the 
snow-filled and tempest-swept passes of the Rockies, 
came a party of starving and frost-bitten scarecrows, 
the exploring expedition headed by John Charles 
Fremont, of whom we shall speak presently. 

The rest of Sutter's history is soon told. In 1848, 
when Mexico ceded California to the United States, 
he was the owner of a vast domain, over which 
thousands of head of cattle wandered. A few years 
later, he was practically a ruined man — ruined by 
gold. On the eighteenth day of January, 1848, one 
of his men named Marshall, brought to Sutter a 
lump of yellow metal which he had uncovered while 
digging a mill-race. There could be no doubt of it 
— it was gold! News of the gTeat discovery soon 
got about; there was a great rush for this new El- 
dorado ; Sutter's land was overrun with gold-seekers, 
who cared nothing for his rights, and when he at- 
tempted to defend his titles in the courts, they were 
declared invalid, and his land was taken from him. 
To crown his disasters, his homestead was destroyed 
by fire; finding himself ruined, without land and 
without money, he gave up the struggle in despair, 

255 



A Guide to Biography 

and returned east, passing his last years in poverty 
in a little town in Pennsylvania. 

Fremont, meantime, had done a great work for 
California. The son of a Frenchman, showing an 
early aptitude for mathematics, he had secured an 
appointment to the United States engineering corps, 
and, after various minor expeditions in which he had 
acquitted himself well, was put in charge of an ex- 
pedition for the exploration of the Rocky Mountains. 
He was fortunate at the start in securing the services 
as guide and interpreter of that famous hunter and 
plainsman. Kit Carson, whose life had been passed 
on the prairies, who knew more Indians and Indian 
dialects than any other white man, and who was, 
to his generation, what Davy Crockett was to an 
earlier one. To Carson a great share of the expedi- 
tion's success was no doubt due, and it was so suc- 
cessful that in the following year, Fremont was 
leading another over the country between the Rockies 
and the Pacific. This one was almost lost in the 
mountains, and came near perishing of cold and 
hunger, but, finally, in March, 1844, managed to 
struggle through to Sutter's Fort. 

Fremont found California in a state of unrest 
amounting almost to insurrection against Mexican 
rule, and as the number of white settlers increased, 
this feeling grew, until Mexico, becoming alarmed, 
sent an armed force to occupy the country. The 
show of force was the one thing needed to fire the 
magazine; the settlers sprang to arms as one man, 
and, imder Fremont's leadership, defeated the Mex- 

256 



Pioneers 

icans and drove them southward across the border. 
Soon afterwards, General Kearny marched in from 
the east, from his remarkable and bloodless conquest 
of l^ew Mexico, with a force sufficient to render it 
certain that California would never again be taken 
by the Mexicans. 

On the fourth of July, 1849, Fremont was chosen 
governor of the new territory, and in the following 
year, arranged the treaty by which California passed 
permanently to the United States. The new state was 
quick to reward him and sent him to the Senate, 
where he gained sufficient prominence to receive the 
nomination of the anti-slavery party for the presi- 
dency in 1856. He never had any chance of election, 
for the reform party had not yet sufficient strength, 
and was defeated by Buchanan. He served with 
some distinction in the Civil "War, gaining consider- 
able notoriety, while in charge of the Western De- 
partment in 1861, by issuing a proclamation freeing 
the slaves of secessionists in Missouri. The proclama- 
tion drew forth some laudatory verses from John G. 
Whittier, but was promptly countermanded by Presi- 
dent Lincoln. Soon afterwards, Fremont became in- 
volved in personal disputes with his superior officers, 
was relieved from active service, and the remainder 
of his Hfe was spent in private enterprises. 

Fremont's " pathfinding " virtually completed the 
exploration of the country. A few secluded nooks 
and corners became known only as the tide of im- 
migration crept into them ; but in its general features, 

257 



A Guide to Biography 

the great continent, on whose eastern shore the white 
man was fighting for a foothold two centuries before, 
was known from ocean to ocean. It had been con- 
quered and occupied by a dominant race, and won 
for civilization. 

SUMMARY 

Boone, Daniel. Born in Bucks County, Pennsyl- 
vania, February 11, 1735; settled at Holman's Ford, 
North Carolina, 1748; explored Kentucky, 1769-70; 
founded Boonesborough, 1775; moved to Missouri, 
1795; died at Charette, Missouri, September 26, 1820. 

Kenton, Simon. Born in Fauquier County, Vir- 
ginia, April 3, 1755; fled to the West, 1771; ranged 
western country as a spy, 1776-78; with George Rogers 
Clark's expedition, 1778; commanded a battalion of 
Kentucky volunteers under Wayne, 1793-94; brigadier- 
general of Ohio militia, 1805; at battle of the Thames, 
1813; died in Logan County, Ohio, April 29, 1836. 

Clark^ George Rogers. Born in Albemarle County, 
Virginia, N'ovember 19, 1752; settled in Kentucky, 
1775; major of militia, 1776; sent as delegate to Vir- 
ginia, 1776; second journey to Virginia, 1777; started 
on Illinois expedition, June 24, 1778; captured Kas- 
kaskia, July 4, 1778; captured Vincennes, February 
24, 1779; defeated Miami Indians and destroyed vil- 
lages, 1782; died near Louisville, Kentucky, February 
18, 1818. 

Putnam, Rufus. Born in Sutton, Massachusetts, 
April 9, 1738; served in campaigns against the French, 
1757-60; superintended defenses of New York City, 
1776; superintended construction of fortifications at 

258 



Pioneers 

West Point, 1778; promoted to brigadier-general, Jan 
nary 7, 1783; founded Marietta, Ohio, April 7, 1788 
judge of Supreme Court of Northwest Territory, 1789 
served as brigadier-general under Wayne, 1792-93 
member of Ohio Constitutional Convention, 1803 
formed first Bible society west of the AUeghanies, 
1812; died at Marietta, Ohio, May 1, 1824. 

Lewis, Meriwether. Born near Charlottesville, 
Virginia, August 18, 1774; entered United States 
army, 1795; promoted captain, 1800; private secretary 
to President Jefferson, 1801-03; explored country west 
of Mississippi, 1804-06; governor of Missouri Terri- 
tory, 1808; killed himself near Nashville, Tennessee, 
October 8, 1809. 

Clark, William. Born in Virginia, August 1, 
1770; removed to Kentucky, 1774; lieutenant of in- 
fantry, March 7, 1792; resigned from service, July, 
1796; removed to St. Louis, 1796; accompanied Meri- 
wether Lewis on western explorations, 1804-06; gov- 
ernor of Missouri Territory, 1813-21; superintendent 
of Indian Affairs, 1822-38; died at St. Louis, Septem- 
ber 1, 1738. 

Pike, Zebulon Montgomery. Born at Lamberton, 
New Jersey, January 5, 1779; entered United States 
army, 1799; captain, 1806; conducted exploring expe- 
ditions in Louisiana Territory, 1805-07; major, 1808; 
colonel, 1812; brigadier-general, March 12, 1813; died 
in assault on York (now Toronto), Canada, April 27, 
1813. 

HousTOisr, Samuel. Born near Lexington, Virginia, 
March 2, 1793; served in war of 1812; member of 
Congress from Tennessee, 1823-27; governor of Ten- 

259 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

nessee, 1827-29; defeated Mexicans at San Jacinto, 
April, 1836; President of Texas, 1836-38 and 1841- 
44; United States senator from Texas, 1845-59; gov- 
ernor of Texas, 1859-61; died at Huntersville, Texas, 
July 25, 1863. 

Crockett, David. Born at Limestone, Tennessee, 
August 17, 1786; member of Congress, 1827-33; 
served in Texan war, 1835-36; killed at The Alamo, 
San Antonio de Bexar, Texas, March 6, 1836. 

Bowie, James. Born in Burke County, Georgia, 
about 1790; notorious in duel of 1827; went to Texas, 
1835; made colonel of Texan army, 1835; killed at the 
Alamo, March 6, 1836. 

Travis, William Barrett. Born in Conecuh 
County, Alabama, 1811; admitted to the bar, 1830; 
went to Texas, 1832; killed at the Alamo, March 6, 
1836. 

"Whitman", Marcus. Born in Rushville, Ontario 
County, New York, September 4, 1802; appointed mis- 
sionary to Oregon, 1834; reached Fort Walla Walla, 
September 2, 1836; started on ride across continent, 
October 3, 1842; reached Washington, March 3, 1843; 
took great train of emigrants back to Oregon, 1843; 
killed by Indians at Waiilatpu, Oregon, November 29, 
1847. 

Sutter, John Augustus. Born in Kandern, Baden, 
February 15, 1803 ; graduated at military college at 
Berne, Switzerland, 1823; served in Swiss Guard 
through Spanish campaign, 1823-24; emigrated to 
America and settled at St. Louis, 1834; crossed Rocky 
Mountains, 1838 ; settled in California, 1839 ; built fort 
on present site of Sacramento, 1841 ; gold discovered on 

260 



Pioneers 

his ranch, January 18, 1848; homestead burned, 1864; 
removed to Litiz, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 
1873; died at Washington, D. C, June 17, 1880. 

Fremont^ John Charles. Born at Savannah, 
Georgia, January 21, 1813; explored South Pass, Rocky 
Mountains, 1842; Pacific Slope, 1843-45; took part in 
conquest of California, 1846-47; United States senator 
from California, 1850-51 ; Eepublican candidate for 
presidency, 1856; Federal Commander of Department 
of the West, 1861; governor of Arizona, 1878-82; died 
at N"ew York City, July 13, 1890. 



261 



CHAPTER VII 

GREAT SOLDIERS 

WE have seen how the great crises in our coun- 
try's history have produced great men to deal 
with them. We shall see now how great wars pro- 
duce great soldiers. The Revolution produced them; 
the Civil War produced them. The second war with 
England, and the war with Spain failed to produce 
them because they were too quickly ended, and with- 
out desperate need. They served, however, to pierce 
certain gold-laced bubbles which had been strutting 
about the stage pretending to be great and impress- 
ing many people with their greatness ; but which were, 
in reality, great only in self-conceit, and in that 
colossal! So did the Revolution and the Civil War, 
at first, and costly work it was until the last of them 
had vanished, to be replaced by men who knew how 
to fight; for it seems one of the axioms of history 
that the fiercer your soldier is in peace, the more 
useless he is on a battlefield. The war with Mexico, 
by a fortunate chance, found a few good fighters 
ready at hand, and so was pushed through in the 
most brilliant way. One trembles to think how the 
Revolution might have begun — and ended ! — but for 
the fact that Washington, experienced in warfare and 
disdaining gold lace and empty boasts, was, by a 

262 



Great Soldiers 

fortunate chance, chosen commander-in-chief. That 
choice is our greatest debt to John and Samuel 
Adams. 

Early in the eighteenth century, there lived in the 
old historic town of Salem, Massachusetts, Joseph 
Putnam and his wife, Elizabeth. They already had 
nine children, and, in 1718, a tenth was born to them 
and they named him Israel, which means a soldier 
of God, His career was destined to be one of the 
most romantic and adventurous in American history, 
but none of his brothers or sisters managed to get 
into the lime-light of fame. 

Israel himself started in tamely enough as a 
farmer, having bought a tract of five hundred acres 
down in Connecticut. Wild animals had been pretty 
well exterminated by that time, but one old she- 
wolf still had her den not far from Putnam's farm, 
and one night she came out and amused herself by 
killing sixty or seventy of his fine sheep. "When 
Putnam found them stretched upon the ground next 
morning, a great rage seized him ; he swore that that 
wolf should never have the chance to do such another 
night's work; he tracked her to her cave, and de- 
scending without hesitation into the dark and narrow 
entrance, shot straight between the eyes he saw 
gleaming at him through the darkness, and dragged 
the carcass out into the daylight. That incident 
gives some idea of Israel Putnam's temper, and what 
desperate things he was capable of doing when his 
blood was up. 

263 



A Guide to Biography 

That was in 1735, and twenty years elapsed before 
he again appeared upon the page of history. But 
in 1755 began the great war with France, and for 
the next ten years, Putnam's life was fairly crowded 
with incident. Connecticut furnished a thousand 
men to resist the expected French invasion, and Put- 
nam was put in command of a company with the 
rank of captain. His company acted as rangers, and 
for two years did remarkable service in harassing 
the enemy and in warning the settlers against lurk- 
ing bands of Indians, set on by the French. On more 
than one occasion, he saved his life by the closest 
margin. He was absolutely fearless, and this, to- 
gether with a clear head and quick eye, carried him 
safely through peril after peril, any one of which 
would have proved the death of a man less resolute. 

He saved a party of soldiers from the Indians by 
steering them in a bateau safely down the dangerous 
rapids of the Hudson; he saved Fort Edward from 
destruction by fire at the imminent risk of his life, 
working undaunted although the flames were threat- 
ening, every moment, to explode the magazine; a 
year later, captured by the Indians, who feared and 
hated him, he was bound to a stake, after some 
preliminary tortures, and a pile of fagots heaped 
about him and set on fire. The flames were searing 
his flesh, when a French officer happened to come 
up and rescued him. These are but three incidents 
out of a dozen such. He seemed to bear a charmed 
life, and any of his men would willingly have died 
for him. In 1765, when he returned home after ten 

264 



Great Soldiers 

years of continuous campaigning, it was witli the 
rank of colonel, and a reputation for daring and re- 
sourcefulness second to none in New England. 

Ten years of quiet followed, and Israel Putnam 
was fifty-seven years of age — an age wlien most men 
consider their life work done. On the afternoon of 
April 20, 1775, he was engaged in hauling some 
stones from a field with a team of oxen, when he 
heard galloping hoofbeats down the road, and looking 
up, saw a courier riding up full speed. The courier 
paused only long enough to shout the tidings of the 
fight at Concord, and then spurred on again. Put- 
nam, leaving his oxen where they stood, threw him- 
self upon horseback, without waiting to don his 
uniform, and at sunrise next day, galloped into Cam- 
bridge, having travelled nearly a hundred miles! 
Verily there were giants in those days! 

He was placed in command of the Connecticut 
forces with the rank of brigadier-general, and soon 
afterwards was one of four major-generals appointed 
by the Congress for the Continental army. For four 
years thereafter he took a conspicuous part in the 
war, bearing himself always with characteristic gal- 
lantry. But the machine had been worn out by 
excessive exertion; in 1779 he was stricken with 
paralysis, and the last years of his life were passed 
quietly at home. For sheer, extravagant daring, 
which paused at no obstacle and trembled at no 
peril, he has, perhaps, never had his equal among 
American soldiers. 

Not far from West Greenwich, Connecticut, there 

265 



A Guide to Biograplij 

is a steep and rocky bluff, tlie scene of one of Put- 
nam^s most extraordinary feats, performed only a 
short time before he was stricken down. An ex- 
pedition, fifteen hundred strong, had been sent by 
the British against West Greenwich, and Putnam 
rallied a company to oppose the invaders, but his 
little force was soon routed and dispersed, and sought 
to escape across country with the British in hot 
pursuit. Putnam, prominent as the leader of the 
Americans, was hard pressed, and his horse, weary 
from a long march, was failing; his capture seemed 
certain, for the enemy gained upon him rapidly; 
when suddenly, he turned his horse down the steep 
bluff at his side, reached the bottom in safety by 
some miracle, and rode away in triumph, leaving his 
astonished and baffled pursuers at the top, for not 
one dared follow him! 

I have spoken of how the test of war winnows 
the wheat from the chaff. This was so in those days 
as in these, and, as an amusing proof of it, one has 
only to glance over the names of the generals ap- 
pointed by the Congress at the same time as Putnam. 
Artemas Ward, Seth Pomeroy, William Heath, 
Joseph Spencer, David Wooster, John Thomas, John 
Sullivan — what cursory student of American history 
knows anything of them? Four others are better 
remembered — Richard Montgomery, for the gallant 
and hopeless assault upon Quebec in which he lost 
his life; Charles Lee for disobeying Washington's 
orders at the battle of Monmouth and provoking 

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Great Soldiers 

tlie great Yirginlan to an historic outburst of rage; 
Nathanael Greene for his masterly conduct of the 
war in the South; Horatio Gates, first for a victory 
over Burgoyne which he did very little to bring 
about, and second for his ill-starred attempt to sup- 
plant Washington as commander-in-chief. 

Let us pause for a glance at Gates. Born in Eng- 
land, he had seen service in the British army, and 
had been badly wounded at Braddock's defeat, but 
managed to escape from the field. He resigned from 
the army, after that, and settled in Virginia, where 
his supposed military prowess won him the appoint- 
ment of brigadier-general at the outbreak of the 
Revolution. He secured command of the IN^orthern 
army, which had gathered to resist the gi^eat force 
which was marching south from Canada under John 
Burgoyne. He found the field already prepared by 
General Schuyler, a much more able ofiicer. Stark 
had defeated and captured a strong detachment at 
Bennington, and Herkimer had won the bloody bat- 
tle of Oriskany; the British army was hemmed in by 
a constantly-increasing force of Americans, and was 
able to drag along only a mile a day; Burgoyne and 
his men were disheartened and apprehensive of the 
future, while the Americans were exultant and con- 
fident of victory. In such circumstances, on Septem- 
ber 19, 1T7Y, was fought the first battle of Bemis 
Heights, a bloody and inconclusive struggle, sup- 
ported wholly by the division of Benedict Arnold, 
who behaved so gallantly that Gates, who had not 
even ridden on the field of battle, was consumed with 

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A Guide to Biography 

jealousy, took Arnold's division away from him, and 
did not mention him in the dispatches describing 
the battle. 

The eve of the second battle found the most suc- 
cessful and popular general in the American army 
without a command. Gates, deeming victory cer- 
tain, thought it safe to insult Arnold, and banished 
him to his tent; but on October 7th, when the sec- 
ond struggle was in progress, Arnold, seeing the tide 
of battle going against his men, threw himself upon 
his horse and dashed into the conflict. In a frenzy 
of rage, he dressed the lines, rallied his men, who 
cheered like mad when they saw him again at their 
head, and led a charge which sent the British reeling 
back. He pursued the fleeing enemy to their en- 
trenchments, and dashed forward to storm them, but, 
in the very sally-port, horse and rider fell together 
— the horse dead, the rider with a shattered leg. 
That ended the battle which he had virtually con- 
ducted in the most gallant manner imaginable. Had 
he died then, he would have been a national hero — 
but another fate awaited him! 

Gates had not been on the field. He had remained 
in his tent, ready to ride away in case of defeat. He 
had ordered all the baggage wagons loaded, ready 
to retreat, for he was by no means the kind of gen- 
eral who burns his bridges behind him. His jeal- 
ousy of Arnold mounted to fever heat, but that 
hero, lying grievously wounded in his tent, was for 
the moment beyond reach of his envy. 

Burgoyne attempted to retreat, but found it was 

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Great Soldiers 

too late. Surrounded and hemmed in on every side, 
he turned and turned for six days seeking vainly for 
some way out; but there was no escaping, the Amer- 
ican army w^as growing in numbers and confidence 
daily, and his own supplies were running short. 
Pride and ambition yielded at last to stem necessity 
and he surrendered. 

Gates, believing himself a second Alexander, be- 
came so inflated with conceit that he did not even 
send a report of the surrender to Washington, but 
communicated it direct to the Congress, over the 
head of his commander-in-chief. Weak and envious, 
he entered heart and soul into the plot to supplant 
Washington in supreme command; but his real in- 
competency was soon apparent, for, at the battle of 
Camden, making blunder after blunder, he sent his 
army to disastrous defeat, and was recalled by the 
Congress, his northern laurels, as had been predicted, 
changed to southern willows. So blundering had 
been his conduct of the only campaign that he had 
managed that his military career ended then and 
there, and the remainder of his life was spent upon 
his estate in Virginia. 

1^0 doubt his petty and ignoble spirit rejoiced at 
the downfall of the brilliant man who had won for 
him his victories over Burgoyne. Let us speak of 
him for a moment. In remembering Arnold the 
traitor, we are apt to forget Arnold the general. 
There is, of course, no excuse for treason, and yet 
Arnold had without doubt suffered grave injustice. 
He was by nature rash to recklessness, at home on 

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A Guide to Biography 

the battlefield and delighting in danger, with a real 
genius for the management of a battle and a per- 
sonality whose charm won him the absolute devotion 
of his men. But he w^as also proud and selfish, and 
these qualities caused his ruin. 

Let us do him justice. Two days after the battle 
of Concord, he had marched into Cambridge at the 
head of a company of militia which he had collected 
at New Haven; it was he who suggested the expedi- 
tion against Ticonderoga and who marched into the 
fortress side by side with Ethan Allen; it was he 
who led an expedition against Quebec, accomplish- 
ing one of the most remarkable marches in history, 
and, after a brilliant campaign, retreated only be- 
fore overwhelming numbers; on Lake Champlain he 
engaged in a naval battle, one of the most desperate 
ever fought by an American fleet, which turned back 
a British invasion and delayed Burgoyne's advance 
for a year; while visiting his home at New Haven, a 
British force invaded Connecticut, and Arnold, rais- 
ing a force of volunteers, drove them back to their 
ships and nearly captured them; then, rejoining the 
northern army, he rendered the most gallant service, 
turned Saint Leger back from Oriskany and won 
virtually unaided the two battles of Saratoga, which 
resulted in Burgoyne's surrender. 

It will be seen from this that, to the end of 1777, 
no man in the American army had rendered his coun- 
try more signal service. Indeed, there was none who 
even remotely approached Arnold in glory of achieve- 
ment. But from the first he had been the victim 

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Great Soldiers 

of petty persecution, and of circumstances whicli kept 
from him the credit rightly due him; and a cabal 
against him in the Congress prevented his receiving 
his proper rank in the service. We have seen how 
Gates made no reference to him in reporting the 
brilliant victory at Saratoga; and the same thing 
had happened to him again and again. His close 
friendship with Washington caused the latter's en- 
emies to do him all the harm they could, and Arnold, 
disgusted at his country^s ingratitude, gradually 
drifted into Tory sentiments. He married the 
daughter of a Tory, associated largely with Tories 
during a winter at Philadelphia, and at last resolved 
to end the war, as he thought, in favor of England 
by delivering the line of the Hudson to the British. 
The result of this would be to divide the colonies 
in two and to render effective co-operation almost 
impossible. 

So he sought and obtained command of West Point 
in order to carry out this purpose, began his prepara- 
tions, and had all his plans laid, when the merest 
accident revealed the plot to Washington. Arnold 
escaped by fleeing to a British man-of-war in the 
river, and after a short service against his country, 
marked by a raid along the Virginia shore, he sailed 
for England, where his last years were spent in 
poverty and embittered by remorse. His last great 
act of treachery blotted out the brilliant achieve- 
ments which had gone before, and his name lives 
only as that of the most infamous traitor in American 
history. 

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A Guide to Biography 

Of the great names which come down to ns from 
the Revolution, the one which seems most admir- 
able after that of Washington himself is that of 
Nathanael Greene, not so much because of his mili- 
tary skill, although that was of the highest order, as 
because of his pure patriotism, his lack of selfishness, 
and his utter devotion to the cause for which he 
fought. He was with Washington at Trenton, 
Princeton, and Monmouth, and did much to save 
the army of the battle of the Brandywine. After 
Gates's terrible defeat at Camden, he was put in com- 
mand of the army of the South, and conducted the 
most brilliant campaign of the war, defeating the 
notorious Sir Guy Tarleton, and forcing Cornwallis 
north into Virginia, where he was to be entrapped 
at Yorktown, and ending the war which had dev- 
astated the South by capturing Charleston. After 
Washington, he was perhaps the greatest general the 
war produced; certainly he was the purest patriot, 
and his name should never be forgotten by a grate- 
ful country. 

Linked forever with Greene in the annals of south- 
ern warfare, are three men — Francis Marion, Thomas 
Sumter, and " Light Horse Harry " Lee — three true 
knights and Christian gentlemen, worthy of all 
honor. The first of these, indeed, may fairly be 
called the Bayard of American history, the cavalier 
without fear and without reproach. Born in South 
Carolina in 1Y32, he had seen some service in the 
Cherokee war, and at once, upon news of the fight 
at Lexington, raised a regiment and played an im- 

272 



Great Soldiers 

portant part in driving the British from Charleston 
in 1776 — a victory so decisive that the southern 
states were freed from attack for over two years. 

After the crushing defeat of Gates at Camden, 
Marion's little band was the only patriot force in 
South Carolina, but he harassed the British so effec- 
tively that he soon became genuinely feared. ]^o 
one ever knew where he would attack, for the swift- 
ness of his movements seemed almost superhuman. 
'No hardship disturbed him; he endured heat and 
cold with indifference; his food was of the simplest. 
Every school-boy knows the story of how, inviting a 
British officer to dinner, he sat down tranquilly be- 
fore a log on which were a few baked potatoes, 
which formed the whole meal, and how the English- 
man went away with the conviction that such a foe 
as that could never be conquered. ISTo instance of 
rapacity or cruelty was ever charged against him, nor 
did he ever injure any woman or child. 

As a partisan leader, Sumter was second only to 
Marion, and for two years the patriot fortunes in 
the South were in their hands. Together they joined 
Greene when he took charge of the southern army, 
and proved invaluable allies. Sumter lived to the 
great age of ninety-eight, and was the last surviving 
general officer of the Revolution. He was, too, the 
last survivor of the Braddock expedition, which he 
had accompanied at the age of twenty-one, and which 
had been cut to pieces on the Monongahela twenty 
years before the battle of Lexington was fought. 

" Light Horse Harry '' Lee, whose ^^ Legion " won 

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A Guide to Biography 

such fame in the early years of the Revolution and 
whose services with Greene in the South were of the 
most brilliant character, also lived well into the nine- 
teenth century. It was he who, in 1799, appointed 
by Congress to deliver an address in commemoration 
of "Washington, uttered the famous phrase, " First 
in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his country- 
men." His son, Robert Edward Lee, was destined to 
become perhaps the greatest general in our history. 

So passed the era of the Revolution, and for thirty 
years the new country was called upon to face no 
foreign foe; but pressing upon her frontier was an 
enemy strong and cruel, who knew not the meaning 
of the word " peace." Set on by the British during 
the Revolution, the Indians continued their warfare 
long after peace had been declared. In the wilder- 
ness north of the Ohio they had their villages, from 
which they issued time after time to attack the white 
settlements to the south and east. 'No one knew 
when or where they would strike, and every village 
and hamlet along the frontier was liable to attack 
at any time. The farmer tilling his fields was shot 
from ambush; the hunter found himself hunted; 
children were carried away to captivity, and women, 
looking up from their household work, found an 
Indian on the threshold. 

The land which the Indians held was so beauti- 
ful and fertile that settlers ventured into it, despite 
the deadly peril, and in 1787, the ISTorthwest Terri- 
tory was formed by Congress, and General Arthur 

274 



Great Soldiers 

St. Clair appointed its governor. A Scotcliman, 
brave but impulsive, with a good military training, 
St. Clair bad made an unfortunate record in the 
Revolution. Put in command of the defenses of 
Ticonderoga in the summer of 1777, to hold it against 
the advancing British army under Burgoyne, he had 
permitted the enemy to secure possession of a position 
which commanded the fort, and he was forced to 
abandon it. The British started in hot pursuit, and 
several actions took place in which the Americans 
lost their baggage and a number of men. St. Clair 
had really been placed in an impossible position, but 
his forced abandonment of the fort impressed the 
public very unfavorably. He still had the confi- 
dence of Washington, who assigned him to the im- 
portant task of governing the new Northwest Ter- 
ritory, and subduing the Indians who overran it. 
With Braddock's bitter experience still vividly before 
him, Washington warned St. Clair to beware of a 
surprise in any expedition he might lead against the 
Indians, and the events which followed showed how 
badly that warning was needed. 

In the fall of 1791, St. Clair collected a large force 
at Fort Washington, on the site of the present city 
of Cincinnati, and prepared to advance against the 
Miami Indians. He had fourteen hundred men, but 
he himself was suffering with gout and had to be 
conveyed most of the way in a hammock. By the 
beginning of ISTovember, the army had reached the 
neighborhood of the Miami villages, and there, on 
the morning of the fourth, was surprised, routed and 

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A Guide to Biography 

cut to pieces. Less than five hundred escaped from 
the field, the Indians spreading along the road and 
shooting down the crazed fugitives at leisure. St. 
Clair's military reputation had received its death 
blow, but Washington, with wonderful forbearance, 
permitted him to retain the governorship of the Ter- 
ritory, from which he was removed by Jefferson in 
1802. He lived sixteen years longer, poor and des- 
titute, having used his own fortune to defray the 
expenses of his troops in the Revolution — a debt 
which, to the lasting disgrace of the government, it 
neglected to cancel. He grew old and feeble, and 
was thrown from a wagon, one day, and killed. 
Upon the little stone which marks his grave is this 
inscription: "The earthly remains of Major-General 
Arthur St. Clair are deposited beneath this humble 
monument, which is erected to supply the place of a 
nobler one due from his country." 

The task which proved St. Clair's ruin was to be 
accomplished by another survivor of the Revolution 
— " Mad " Anthony "Wayne; " Mad '' because of his 
fury in battle, the fierceness of his charge, and his 
recklessness of danger — attributes which he shared 
with Benedict Arnold. He was thirty years of age 
at the opening of the Revolution, handsome, full of 
fire, and hungering for glory. He was to win his 
full share of it, and to prove himself, next to Wash- 
ington and Greene, the best general in the army. 

His favorite weapon was the bayonet, and he 
drilled his troops in the use of it until they were 
able to withstand the shock of the renowned British 

276 



Great Soldiers 

infantry, wlio have always prided themselves on their 
prowess with cold steel. His first service was with 
Arnold in Canada; he was with Washington at the 
Brandy wine; and at Germantown, hurling his troops 
npon the Hessians, he drove them back at the point 
of the bayonet, and retreated only under orders when 
the general attack failed. At Monmouth, it was he 
and his men who, standing firm as a rock, repulsed 
the first fierce bayonet charge of the British guards 
and grenadiers. 

So it is not remarkable that, when Washington 
found an unusually hazardous piece of work in hand, 
he should have selected Wayne to carry it through. 
The British held a strong fort called Stony Point, 
which commanded the Hudson and which Washing- 
ton was anxious to capture. It was impossible to 
besiege it, since British frigates held the river, and 
it was so strong that an open assault could never 
carry it. It stood on a rocky promontory, surrounded 
on three sides by water and connected wdth the land 
only by a narrow, swampy neck. The only chance 
to take the place was by a night attack, and Wayne 
eagerly welcomed the opportunity to try it. 

On the afternoon of July 15, 1779, Wayne, at the 
head of about thirteen hundred men, started for the 
fort. He arrived near it after nightfall, and dividing 
his force into three columns, moved forward to the at- 
tack. He relied wholly upon the bayonet, and not 
a musket was loaded. The advance was soon discov- 
ered by the British sentries, and a heavy fire opened 
upon the Americans, but they pressed forward, 

277 



A Guide to Biography 

swarmed up the long, sloping embankment of the 
fort, and in a moment were over the walls. 

A bullet struck Wayne in the head, and he stag- 
gered and fell. Two of his officers caught him up 
and started to take him to the rear, but he struggled 
to his feet. 

" IS^o, no,'' he cried, " I'm going in at the head of 
my men ! Take me in at the head of my men ! " 

And at the head of his men he was carried into the 
fort. 

For a few moments, the bayonets flashed and 
played, then the British broke and ran, and the fort 
was won. No night attack was ever delivered with 
greater skill and boldness. 

Wayne soon recovered from his wound, and took 
an active part in driving Cornwallis into the trap at 
Yorktown. Then he had retired from the army, 
expecting to spend the remainder of his life in peace ; 
but Washington, remembering the man, knew that 
he was the one above all others to teach the Ohio 
Indians a lesson, and called him to the work. Wayne 
accepted the task, and five thousand men were placed 
under his command and started westward over the 
mountains. 

He spent the winter in organizing and drilling 
his forces on the bank of the Ohio where Cincinnati 
now stands, but which was then merely a fort and 
huddle of houses. He made the most careful prepa- 
rations for the expedition, and early in the spring, 
he commenced his march northward into the Indian 
country. The savages gathered to repulse him at 

278 



Great Soldiers 

a spot on tlie Maumee where, years before, a tornado 
had cut a wide swath through the forest, rendering it 
all but impenetrable. Here, on the twentieth of 
August, 1794, he advanced against the enemy, and, 
throwing his troops into the " Fallen Timbers,'' in 
w^hich the Indians were ambushed, routed them out, 
cut them down, and administered a defeat so crush- 
ing that they could not rally from it, and their whole 
country was laid waste with fire and sword. Wayne 
did his work well, burning their villages, and de- 
stroying their crops, so that they would have no 
means of sustenance during the coming winter. 
Thoroughly cowed by this treatment, the Indians 
sued for peace, and at Greenville, nearly a year 
later, Wayne made a treaty in which twelve tribes 
took part. It marked the beginning of a lasting 
peace, which opened the " Old Northwest " to the 
white settler. 

No soldier of the Revolution, with the exception 
of Washington, was elevated to the presidency, nor 
did any of them attain an exalted place in the councils 
of the Nation. Statecraft and military genius rarely 
go hand in hand, and it was not until 1828 that a 
man whose reputation had been made chiefly on the 
battlefield was sent to the White House. Andrew 
Jackson was the only soldier, with one exception, 
who came out of the War of 1812 with any great 
reputation, and it is only fair to add that his victory 
at New Orleans was due more to the rashness of 
the British in advancing to a frontal attack against 

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A Guide to Biography 

a force of entrenclied sharpsliooters tlian to any 
remarkable generalship on the American side. 

The war with Mexico found two able generals 
ready to hand, and laid the foundations of the repu- 
tations of many more. " Old Rough and Ready " 
Zachary Taylor, who commanded during the cam- 
paign which ended with the brilliant victory at Buena 
Vista, had been tested in the fire of frontier warfare, 
and won the presidency in 1848; and Franklin 
Pierce, who commanded one of the divisions which 
captured the City of Mexico, won the same prize 
four years later. It was in this war that Grant, Lee, 
Johnston, Davis, Meade, Hooker, Thomas, Sherman, 
and a score of others who were to win fame fifteen 
years later, got their baptism of fire. Their history 
belongs to the period of the Civil War and will be 
told there; but the chief military glory of the war 
with Mexico centres about a man who divided the 
honors of the War of 1812 with Andrew Jackson 
but who failed to achieve the presidency, and whose 
usefulness had ended before the Civil War began — 
Winfield Scott. 

A Virginian, born in 1786, Scott entered the army 
at an early age, and had reached the rank of lieu- 
tenant-colonel at the opening of the second war with 
England. Two years later, he was made a brigadier- 
general, and commanded at the fierce and successful 
battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane. At the close 
of the war, he was made a major-general, and 
received the thanks of Congress for his services. In 
1841, he became commander-in-chief of the armies 

280 



Great Soldiers 

of tlie United States; but, at the opening of the war 
with Mexico, President Polk, actuated by partisan 
jealousy, kept Scott in Washington and assigned 
Zachary Taylor to the command of the armies in the 
field. Scott had already an enviable reputation, and 
had been an aspirant for the presidency, and Polk 
feared that a few victories would make him an in- 
vincible candidate. Perhaps he was afraid that Scott 
would develop into another Andrew Jackson. 

However, it was impossible to keep the com- 
mander-in-chief of the army inactive while a great 
war was in progress, and early in 1847, he was sent 
to the front, and on March 9 began one of the 
most successful and brilliant military campaigns in 
history. Landing before Vera Cruz, he captured 
that city after a bombardment of twenty days, and, 
gathering his army together, started on an overland 
march for the capital of Mexico. Santa Anna, with 
a great force, awaited him in a strong position at 
Cerro Gordo, but Scott seized the key of it in a lofty 
height commanding the Mexican position, and soon 
won a decisive victory. The American army swept 
on like a tidal wave, and city after city fell before 
it, until, on the twentieth of August, it reached the 
city of the Montezumas. An armistice delayed the 
advance until September 7, but on that day offensive 
operations were begun. Great fortifications strongly 
manned guarded the town, but they were carried 
one after another by assault, and on September 14, 
General Scott marched at the head of his army 
through the city gates. The war was ended — a war 

281 



A Guide to Biography 

in wliicli the Americans had not lost a single battle, 
and had gained a vast empire. 

General Scott came out of the war with a tremen- 
dous reputation; but he lacked personal magnetism. 
A certain stateliness and dignity kept people at a 
distance, and, together with an exacting discipline, 
won him the sobriquet of " Old Fuss and Feathers." 
In 1852, he was the candidate of the Whig party 
for President; but the party was falling to pieces, 
he himself had no great personal following, and he 
was defeated by the Democratic candidate, one of 
his own generals, Franklin Pierce. He remained 
in command of the army until the outbreak of the 
Civil War. Age and infirmities prevented his tak- 
ing the field, and after the disastrous defeat at Bull 
Bun, he resigned the command. General Scott was 
renowned for his striking physique, more majestic, 
perhaps, even than that of Washington. He has, 
indeed, been called the most imposing general in 
history. 

With General Scott ends another era of our his- 
tory, and we come to a consideration of the soldiers 
made famous by the greatest war of the nine- 
teenth century — the civil conflict which threatened, 
for a time, to disrupt the Union. It was a war 
waged on both sides with desperate courage and 
tenacity, and it developed a number of commanders 
not, perhaps, of the very first rank, but standing 
high in the second. 

The first real success of the war was won by 

282 



Great Soldiers 

George B. McClellan. A graduate of West Point, 
veteran of the war with Mexico, and military ob- 
server of the war in the Crimea, he had resigned from 
the army in 1857 to engage in the railroad business, 
with headquarters at Cineinnati. At the opening of 
the war, he was commissioned major-general, and 
put in command of the Department of Ohio. His 
first work was to clear western Virginia of Con- 
federates, which he did in a series of successful skir- 
mishes, lasting but a few weeks. He lost only eight 
men, while the Confederates lost sixteen hundred, 
besides over a thousand taken prisoners. The 
achievement was of the first importance, since it 
saved for the Union the western section of Virginia 
which, a year later, was admitted as a separate state. 
It is worth remembering that in this campaign, Mc- 
Clellan's opponent was no less a personage than 
Kobert E. Lee. 

The success was the greater as contrasted with the 
disaster at Bull Run, and in August, 1861, McClellan 
was placed in command of the Army of the Potomac, 
gathered about Washington and still discouraged and 
disorganized from that defeat and rout. His military 
training had been of the most thorough descrip- 
tion, especially upon the technical side, and no better 
man could have been found for the task of whipping 
that great army into shape. He soon proved his fit- 
ness for the work, and four months later, he had 
under him a trained and disciplined force, the equal 
of any that ever trod American soil. He forged the 
instrument which, in the end, a stronger man than. 

283 



A Guide to Biography 

lie was to use. Let that always be remembered to 
his credit. 

He had become a sort of popular hero, idolized 
by his soldiers, for he possessed in greater degree 
than any other commander at the l^orth that per- 
sonal magnetism which wins men. But it was soon 
evident that he lacked those qualities of aggressive- 
ness, energy, and initiative essential to a great com- 
mander; that he was unduly cautious. He seems 
to have habitually over-estimated the strength of the 
enemy and under-estimated his own. With this 
habit of mind, it was certain that he would never 
suffer a great defeat; but it was also probable that 
he would never win a great victory, and a great 
victory was just what the l^orth hungered for to 
wipe out the disgrace of Bull Run. ISTot for eight 
months was he ready to begin the campaign against 
Richmond, and it ended in heavy loss and final 
retreat, partly because of McClellan's incapacity and 
partly because of ignorant interference with his 
plans on the part of politicians at Washington. For 
it must be remembered that McClellan was a Dem- 
ocrat, and soon became the natural leader of that 
party at the North — a fact which seemed little less 
than treason to many of the political managers at 
the Capital. 

One great and successful battle he fought, how- 
ever, at Antietam, checking Lee^s attempt to invade 
the IsTorth and sending him in full retreat back to 
Virginia, but his failure to pursue the retreating 
army exasperated the President, and he was removed 

284 



Great Soldiers 

from command of the army on l^ovember 7, 1862. 
This closed his career as a soldier. In the light of 
succeeding events, it cannot be doubted that his re- 
moval was a serious mistake. All in all, he was the 
ablest commander the Army of the Potomac ever 
had; he was a growing man; a little more experience 
in the field would probably have cured him of over- 
timidity, and made him a great soldier. General 
Grant summed the matter up admirably when he 
said, " The test applied to him would be terrible to 
any man, being made a major-general at the begin- 
ning of the war. If he did not succeed, it was 
because the conditions of success were so trying. If 
he had fought his way along and up, I have no 
reason to suppose that he would not have won as 
high distinction as any of us." In 1864, McClellan 
was the nominee of the Democratic party for the 
presidency, but received only twenty-one electoral 
votes. 

The command of the Army of the Potomac passed 
to Ambrose E. Burnside, who had won some successes 
early in the war, but who had protested his unfitness 
for a great command, and who was soon to prove 
it. He led the army after Lee, found him entrenched 
on the heights back of Fredericksburg, and hurled 
division after division against an impregnable posi- 
tion, until twelve thousand men lay dead and 
wounded on the field. Burnside, half-crazed with 
anguish at his fatal mistake, offered his resignation, 
which was at once accepted. 

^^ Fighting Joe " Hooker succeeded him, and was 

285 



A Guide to Biography 

soon to demonstrate that he, too, was unfitted for 
the great task. Early in May, believing Lee's army 
to be in retreat, he attacked it at Chancellorsville, 
only to be defeated with a loss of seventeen thousand 
men. At the beginning of the battle. Hooker had 
enjoyed every advantage of position, and his army 
outnumbered Lee's; but he sacrificed his position, 
with unaccountable stupidity, moving from a high 
position to a lower one, provoking the protest from 
Meade that, if the army could not hold the top of 
a hill, it certainly could not hold the bottom of it; 
and he seemed unable to use his men to advantage, 
holding one division in idleness while another was 
being cut to pieces. 

It is, perhaps, sufficient comment upon the folly of 
dismissing McClellan to point out that within seven 
months of his retirement, the Army of the Potomac, 
w^hich had been the finest fighting-machine in ex- 
istence on the continent, had lost thirty thousand 
men on the field and thousands more by desertion, 
and had been converted from a confident and well- 
disciplined force into a discouraged and disorganized 
rabble. 

Meanwhile a new star had arisen in the West in 
the person of U. S. Grant — " Unconditional Sur- 
render " Grant, as he was called, after his capture 
of Fort Donelson — the event which riveted the eyes 
of the l^ation upon him and which marked the begin- 
ing of his meteor-like advancement. We have already 
spoken of Grant as President, and of his unfitness for 

286 




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Great Soldiers 

that high office. There are also many who dispute 
his ability as a commander, who point out that his 
army always outnumbered that opposed to him, and 
who claim that his victories were won by brute force 
and not by military skill. That there is some truth 
in this nobody can deny, and yet his campaign 
against Yicksburg was one of the most brilliant in 
this or any other war. It might be added, too, that 
it takes something more than preponderance of 
numbers to win a battle — as Hooker showed at 
Chancellorsville — and that Grant did win a great 
many. 

The truth about Grant is that he was utterly 
lacking in that personal magnetism which made 
McClellan, Sheridan and " Stonewall " Jackson 
idolized by their men, and which is essential to a 
great commander. He was cold, reserved, and silent, 
repelled rather than attracted. He succeeded mainly 
because he was determined to succeed, and hung on 
with bull-dog tenacity until he had worn his op- 
ponent out. Not till then did he stop to take stock 
of his own injuries. " I propose to fight it out on 
this line, if it takes all summer,'^ was a characteristic 
utterance. 

The honors of Union victories were fairly divided 
with Grant by William Tecumseh Sherman, a man 
who, as a general, was greater in some respects than 
his chief. Sherman was an Ohioan, and, after gradu- 
ating from West Point and serving in California 
during the war with Mexico, resigned from the army 
to seek more lucrative employment. He was given 

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A Guide to Biography 

a regiment when the war opened, and his advance 
was rapid. lie first showed his real worth at the 
battle of Shiloh, where he commanded a division 
and by superb fighting, saved Grant's reputation. 

Grant had collected an army of forty thousand 
men at Pittsburg Landing, an obscure stopping-place 
in southern Tennessee for Mississippi boats, and 
though he knew that the Confederates were gather- 
ing at Corinth, twenty miles away, he left his army 
entirely exposed, throwing up not a single breast- 
work, never dreaming that the enemy would dare 
attack him. I^evertheless, they did attack, while 
Grant himself was miles away from his army, and 
by the end of the first day's fighting, had succeeded 
in pushing the Union forces back upon the river, in 
a cramped and dangerous position. The action was 
resumed next day, and the Confederates forced to 
retire, which they did in good order. That the Union 
army was not disastrously defeated was due largely 
to the superb leadership of Sherman, who had three 
horses shot under him and was twice wounded, but 
whose demeanor was so cool and inspiring that his 
raw troops, not realizing their peril, were filled with 
confidence and fought like veterans. 

Sherman's fame increased rapidly after that. 
When Grant departed for the East to take command 
of the Army of the Potomac, he planned for Sher- 
man a campaign against Atlanta, Georgia — a cam- 
paign which Sherman carried out in the most mas- 
terly manner, marching into Atlanta in triumph on 
September 2, 1864. The campaign had cost him 

288 



Great Soldiers 

thirty-two thousand men, but the Confederate loss 
had been much heavier, and in Atlanta the Con- 
federacy lost one of its citadels. It was especially 
valuable because of the great machine shops located 
there, and these Sherman proceeded to destroy be- 
fore starting on his famous ^^ march to the sea.'' 

This, the most spectacular movement of the whole 
war, was planned by Sherman, who secured Grant's 
permission to carry it out, and the start was made 
on the fifteenth of I^ovember. The army marched 
by four roads, as nearly parallel as could be found, 
starting at seven o'clock every morning and cover- 
ing fifteen miles every day. All railroads and other 
property that might aid the Confederates were de- 
stroyed, the soldiers were allowed to forage freely, 
and in consequence a swath of destruction sixty 
miles wide and three hundred miles long was cut 
right across the Confederacy. A locust would have 
had difficulty in finding anything to eat after the 
army had passed. It encountered no effective resist- 
ance, and by the middle of December, came within 
sight of the sea. 

On December 21, Sherman entered Savannah, 
and wired Lincoln that he presented him the city 
as a Christmas gift. Then he turned northward to 
join Grant, taking Columbia, Fayetteville, Golds- 
boro and Raleigh, and destroying Confederate 
arsenals, foundries, railroads and public works of all 
descriptions. Lee had surrendered four days be- 
fore Sherman marched into Ealeigh, and the next 
day a flag of truce from General Joseph E. John- 

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A Guide to Biography 

ston opened negotiations for the surrender of his 
army. 

This, the virtual close of the Civil "War, ended 
Sherman's career in the field. In 1866, he was 
made lieutenant-general, and three years later suc- 
ceeded Grant as commander-in-chief of the army, 
retiring from the service in 1884, at the age of 
sixty-four. 

Whatever may have been the relative merits of 
Grant and Sherman as commanders, there can be no 
question as to the greatest cavalry leader in the 
Union armies, and one of the greatest in any army, 
Philip Henry Sheridan. Above any cavalry leader, 
ISTorth or South, except " Stonewall " Jackson, Sheri- 
dan possessed the power of rousing his men to the ut- 
most pitch of enthusiastic devotion; young, dashing 
and intrepid himself, his men were ready to follow 
him anywhere — and it was usually to victory that 
he led them. 

Sheridan was a West Pointer, graduating in 1853, 
and was appointed captain at the outbreak of the 
war. It was not until May of 1862 that he found 
his real place as colonel of cavalry, and not until 
the first days of the following year that he had the 
opportunity to distinguish himself. Then, at the 
battle of Murfreesboro, he broke through the ad- 
vancing Confederate line which was crumpling up 
the right of the Union army, and turned the tide of 
battle from defeat to victory. As a reward, he was 
appointed major-general of volunteers. In April, 
1864, he became commander of the cavalry corps of 

290 



Great Soldiers 

the Army of the Potomac, and three months later 
made his famous raid along the valley of the 
Shenandoah. 

Entering the valley with an army of forty thou- 
sand men, Sheridan swept Early and a Confederate 
force out of it, and then, to render impossible any 
Confederate raids thereafter with the valley as a 
base, rode from end to end of it, destroying every- 
thing that would support an army. Early, mean- 
while, had been reinforced, and, one misty morning, 
fell upon the Federals while they lay encamped at 
Cedar Creek. The surprise was complete, and in a 
short time the Union army was in full flight. Sher- 
idan had been called to Washington, and on the 
morning of the battle was at Winchester, some 
twenty miles away. In the early dawn, he heard the 
rumble of the cannonade, and, springing to horse, 
galloped to the battlefield, to meet his men retreat- 
ing. 

" Face about, boys ! face about ! " he shouted, rid- 
ing up and down the lines ; and his men saw him, and 
burst into a cheer, and reformed their lines, and, 
catching his spirit of victory, led by their loved 
commander, fell upon Early, routed him and prac- 
tically destroyed his army. Perhaps nowhere else 
in history is there an instance such as this — of a 
general meeting his army in full retreat, stopping 
the panic, facing them about, and leading them to 
victory. 

In the last campaign against Richmond, Sheridan's 
services were of inestimable value; it was he who 

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A Guide to Biography 

defeated a great Confederate force at the brilliant 
battle of Five Forks; it was he who got in front of 
Lee's retreating army and cornered it at Appomat- 
tox. He had his full share of honors, succeeding 
Sherman as general-in-chief of the army in 1883, 
and receiving the rank of general from Congress, 
just before his death five years later. Grant, Sher- 
man and Sheridan are the only men in the country's 
history who have held this highest of military titles. 

After these three men, George H. Thomas was 
the most prominent commander on the Union side; 
notable, too, from the fact that he was a Virginian, 
and was considered a traitor by his native state for 
his adherence to the Union cause, just as poor old 
Winfield Scott had been. He had made something 
of a name for himself before the Civil War opened, 
distinguishing himself in the w^ar with Mexico and 
winning brevets for gallantry at the battles of Mon- 
terey and Buena Vista. He won a decisive victory 
at Mill Springs early in 1862, and saved the army 
from rout at Murfreesboro by his heroic holding 
of the centre. But his most famous exploit was the 
defence of Horseshoe ridge, against overwhelming 
odds, at the battle of Chickamauga. 

The Union right wing had been routed, and the 
Confederates, certain of a great victory, turned 
against the left wing, twenty-five thousand strong, 
under command of Thomas. They swarmed up the 
slope on which Thomas had taken his position, only 
to be hurled back with heavy loss. Again and again 

292 



Great Soldiers 

tliey charged, sixty thousand of them, but Thomas 
stood like a rock against which the Confederates 
dashed themselves in vain. For six hours that ter- 
rific fighting continued, until nearly half of Thomas's 
men lay dead or wounded, but night found him still 
master of the position, saving the Union army from 
destruction. Ever afterwards Thomas was known 
as " The Rock of Chickamauga." 

In the following year, he again distinguished him- 
self by defeating Hood at ^Nashville, in one of the 
most brilliant battles of the war. The defeat was 
the most decisive by either side in a general engage- 
ment, the Confederate army losing half its numbers, 
and being so routed and demoralized that it could 
not rally and was practically destroyed. Thomas's 
plan of battle is studied to this day in the military 
schools of Europe, and has been compared with that 
of E^apoleon at Austerlitz. 

After Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas, 
there is a wide gap. ^o other commanders on the 
Union side measured up to them, although there 
were many of great ability. McPherson, Buell, Sum- 
ner, Hancock, Meade, Rosecrans, Kilpatrick, Pope 
— all had their hours of triumph, but none of them 
developed into what could be called a great com- 
mander. Whether from inherent weakness, or from 
lack of opportunity for development, all stopped 
short of greatness. It is worth noting that every 
famous general. Union or Confederate, and most of 
the merely prominent ones, were graduates of West 
Point and had received their baptism of fire in 

293 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

Mexico, the only exception being Sheridan, who did 
not graduate from West Point until after the war 
with Mexico was over. 

Turning now to the Confederate side, we find here, 
too, four supremely able commanders, the first of 
whom, Robert E. Lee, is believed by many to be 
the greatest in our country's history. No doubt some 
of the renown which attaches to Lee's name is due 
to his desperate championship of a lost cause, and to 
the love which the people of the South bore, and 
still bear, him because of his singularly sweet and 
unselfish character. But, sentiment aside, and look- 
ing at him only as a soldier, he must be given a 
place in the front rank of our greatest captains. 
There are not more than two or three to rank 
with him — certainly there is none to rank ahead of 
him. 

Robert Edward Lee was a son of that famous 
" Light Horse Harry " Lee to whose exploits during 
the Revolution we have already referred. He was 
born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1807, 
entered West Point at the age of eighteen, and 
graduated four years later, second in his class. His 
father had died ten years before, and his mother 
lived only long enough to welcome him home from 
the Academy. He was at once assigned to the 
engineer corps of the army, distinguished himself in 
the war with Mexico and served as superintendent 
of West Point from 1852 to 1855. 

Meanwhile, at the age of twenty-four, he had mar- 

294 



Great Soldiers 

ried Mary Randolph, daughter of Washington Parke 
Custis, of Arlington, and great-grand-daughter of 
George Washington's wife. Miss Custis was a great 
heiress, and in time the estate of Arlington, situated 
on the heights across the Potomac from Washington, 
became hers and her husband's, but he nevertheless 
continued in the service. The marriage was a happy 
and fortunate one in every way, and Lee's home life 
was throughout a source of help and inspiration to 
him. 

In the autumn of 1859, while home on leave, 
he was ordered to assist in capturing John Brown, 
who had taken Harper's Ferry. At the head of a 
company of marines, he took Brown prisoner and, 
protecting him from a mob which would have lynched 
him, handed him over to the authorities. Two years 
later came the great trial of his life, when he was 
called upon to decide between iN'orth and South, 
between Virginia and the Union. 

Lee was not a believer in slavery; he had never 
owned slaves, and when Custis died in 1859, Lee had 
carried out the dead man's desire that all the slaves 
at Arlington should be freed. IN'either was he a 
believer in secession; but, on the other hand, he 
questioned the North's right to invade and coerce the 
seceding states, and when Virginia joined them, and 
made him commander-in-chief of her army, he ac- 
cepted the trust. Shortly before, at the instance of 
his fellow- Virginian, General Scott, he had been 
offered command of the Union army, but declined 
it, stating that, though opposed to secession and 

295 



A Guide to Biography 

deprecating war, he could take no part in an invasion 
of the southern states. 

Curiously enough, the southern press, which was 
to end by idolizing him, began by abusing him. His 
first campaign was in western Virginia and was a 
woeful failure, due partly to the splendid way in 
which McClellan, on the Union side, managed it, 
and partly to blunders on the Confederate side for 
which Lee was in no way responsible; but the result 
was that that section of the state was lost to the Con- 
federacy forever, and Lee got the blame. Even his 
friends feared that he had been over-rated, and he 
was sent away from the field of active hostilities to 
the far South, where he was assigned to command 
Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. He accepted 
the assignment without comment, and went to work 
immediately fortifying the coast, to such good pur- 
pose that his reputation was soon again firmly estab- 
lished. Early in 1862, he was recalled to Richmond 
to assist in its defense. He found his beautiful estate 
on the heights opposite Washington confiscated, his 
family exiled, his fortune gone. 

General Joseph E. Johnston was in command of 
the forces at Richmond, and was preparing to meet 
McClellan, who was slowly advancing up the pen- 
insula. But Johnston was wounded at the battle of 
Seven Pines, on May 31, and on the following day, 
Lee assumed command of the army. He got it well 
in hand at once, sent Stuart on a raid around Mc- 
Clellan's lines, and gradually forced the Union army 
away from Richmond, until the capital of the Con- 

296 



Great Soldiers 

federacy was no longer in danger. Flushed witli 
success, Lee threw his army to the northeast against 
Pope, routed him, crossed the Potomac into Mary- 
land, threatened Washington, and carried the war 
Tvith a vengeance into the enemy's country. A more 
complete reversal of conditions could not be imag- 
ined; a month before, he had been engaged in a 
seemingly desperate effort to save Richmond; now 
he had started upon an invasion of the l^orth which 
promised serious results. 

But things did not turn out as he expected. The 
inhabitants of Maryland did not rally to him, Mc- 
Clellan was soon after him with a great army, and 
on September 17, overtook him at Antietam, and 
fought a desperate battle; from which Lee, over- 
whelmed by an army half again as large as his own, 
was forced to withdraw defeated, though in good 
order, and recross the Potomac into Virginia. Three 
months later, he got his revenge in full measure 
at Fredericksburg, routing Burnside with fearful 
loss, and early in May of the following year scored 
heavily again by defeating Hooker at Chancellors- 
ville. The last victory was a dearly-bought one, for 
it cost the life of that most famous of all American 
cavalry leaders, " Stonewall " Jackson, of whom we 
shall speak hereafter. 

That was the culmination of Lee's career, for two 
months after Chancellorsville, having started on an- 
other great invasion of the North, on the fourth day 
of July, 1863, he was forced to retire from the fierce 
battle of Gettysburg with his army seriously crip- 

297 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

pled and with all hope of invading the ISJ'orth at an 
end. He was on the defensive, after that, with 
Grant's great army gradually closing in upon him 
and drawing nearer and nearer to Kichmond. That 
he w^as able to prolong this struggle for nearly two 
years, especially considering the exhausted state of 
the South, was remarkable to the last degree, elo- 
quent testimony to the high order of his leadership. 
Toward the last, his men were in rags and practically 
starving, but there was no murmuring so long as 
their beloved " Marse Robert '' was with them. 

On the ninth day of April, 1865, six days after 
the fall of Richmond, Lee found himself surrounded 
at Appomattox Courthouse by a vastly superior force 
imder General Grant. To have fought would have 
meant a useless waste of human life. Lee chose the 
braver and harder course, and surrendered. He knew 
that there could be but one end to the struggle, and 
he was brave enough to admit defeat. On that occa- 
sion. Grant rose to the full stature of a hero. He 
treated his conquered foe with every courtesy; 
granted terms whose liberality was afterwards 
sharply criticised by the clique in control of Con- 
gress, but which Grant insisted should be carried out 
to the letter ; sent the rations of his own army to the 
starving Confederates, and permitted them to retain 
their horses in order that they might get home, and 
have some means of earning a livelihood. 

When Lee rode back to his army, it was to be sur- 
rounded by his ragged soldiers, who could not be- 
lieve that the end had come, who were ready to keep 

298 




LEE 



Great Soldiers 

on fighting, and who broke down and sobbed like 
children when thej learned the truth. The next 
day, he issued an address to his army, a dignified 
and worthy composition, which is still treasured in 
many a southern home ; and then, mounting his faith- 
ful horse. Traveller, which had carried him through 
the war, he rode slowly away to Richmond. He was 
greeted every^vhere with the wildest enthusiasm, and 
found himself then, as he has ever since remained, 
the idol and chosen hero of the southern people, 
who saw in him a unique and splendid embodiment 
of valor and virtue, second only to the first and great- 
est of all Virginians, and even surpassing him in the 
subtle qualities of the heart. 

As has been said, his fortune was gone, and it was 
necessary for him to earn a living. The opportunity 
soon came in the offer of the presidency of Wash- 
ington College, at Lexington, where the remainder 
of his days were spent in honored quiet. Those five 
years of warfare, with their hardships and exposures, 
had brought on rheumatism of the heart, and the 
end came on October 12, 1870. He died dreaming 
of battle, and his last words were, " Tell Hill he 
must come up! " 

'Next to Lee in the hearts of the Southern sol- 
diers was Thomas Jonathan Jackson, better known 
by the sobriquet of ^^ Stonewall," which General 
Bee gave him during the first battle of Bull Run. 
Driven back by the Union onset, the Confederate 
left had retreated a mile or more, when it reached 
the plateau where Jackson and his brigade were sta- 

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A Guide to Biography 

tioned. The brigade never wavered, but stood fast 
and held the position. 

" See there ! " shouted General Bee, " Jackson is 
standing like a stone wall. Bally on the Virgin- 
ians! '^ 

Bally they did, and Jackson was ever thereafter 
known as " Stonewall." 

It was a good name, as representing not only his 
qualities of physical courage, but also his qualities 
of moral courage. There was something rock-like 
and immovable about him, even in his everyday af- 
fairs, and so " Stonewall '' he remained. 

In some respects Stonewall Jackson was the most 
remarkable man whom the war made famous. A 
graduate of "West Point, he had served through the 
Mexican war, and then, finding the army not to his 
liking, had resigned from the service to accept a 
professorship at the Virginia Military Institute. He 
made few friends, for he was of a silent and reserved 
disposition, and besides, he conducted a Sunday 
school for colored children. It is a fact worth noting 
that neither of the two great leaders of the Con- 
federate armies believed in slavery, the one thing 
which they were fighting to defend. So Jackson's 
neighbors merely thought him queer, and left him to 
himself; certainly, none suspected that he was a 
genius. 

Yet a genius he was, and proved it. Enlisting a=? 
soon as the war began, and distinguishing himself, 
as we have seen, by holding back the Union charge 
at Bull Bun, he was made a major-general after 

300 



Great Soldiers 

that battle, and a year later probably saved Ricb- 
mond from capture by preventing tbe armies of 
Banks and McDowell from operating with McClellan, 
making one of the most brilliant campaigns of the 
war, overwhelming both his antagonists, and, leaving 
them stunned behind liim, hastening to Richmond 
to assist Lee, arriving just in time to turn the tide 
of battle at Gaines Mills. 

As soon as McClellan had been beaten back from 
Richmond, Jackson returned to the Shenandoah 
valley, defeated Banks at Cedar Run, seized Pope's 
depot at Manassas, and held him on the ground until 
Lee came up, when Pope was defeated at the sec- 
ond battle of Bull Run. Two weeks later, Jackson 
captured Harper's Ferry, with thirteen thousand pris- 
oners, seventy cannon, and a great quantity of stores; 
commanded the left wing of the Confederate army 
at Antietam, against which the corps of Hooker, 
Mansfield and Sumner hurled themselves in vain; 
and at Fredericksburg commanded the right wing, 
which repelled the attack of Franklin's division. 

These remarkable successes had established Jack- 
son's reputation as a commander of unusual merit; 
he was promoted to lieutenant-general, and Lee came 
to rely upon him more and more. He had, too, by a 
certain high courage and charm of character, won 
the complete devotion of his men; to say that they 
loved him, that any one of them would have laid 
down his life for him, is but the simple truth. N"© 
other leader in the whole war, with the exception of 
Lee, who dwelt in a region high and apart, was idol- 

301 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

ized as lie was. But his career was nearly ended, and, 
by the bitter irony of fate, he was to be killed by the 
very men who loved him. 

On the second day of May, 1863, Lee sent him on 
a long flanking movement around Hooker's army at 
Chancellorsville. Emerging from the woods towards 
evening, he surprised and routed Howard's corps, and 
between eight and nine o'clock rode forward with a 
small party beyond his own lines to reconnoitre the 
enemy's position. As he turned to ride back, his 
party was mistaken for Federal cavalrymen and a 
volley poured into it by a Confederate outpost. Sev- 
eral of the party were killed, and Jackson received 
three wounds. They were not in themselves fatal, 
but pneumonia followed, and death came eight days 
later. 

There was none to fill his place — it was as though 
Lee had lost his right arm. The result of the war 
would have been in no way different had he lived, 
but his death was an incalculable loss to the Con- 
federacy. It was Lee's opinion that he would have 
won the battle of Gettysburg had he had Jackson 
with him, and this is more than probable, so evenly 
did victory and defeat hang in the balance there. 
But, even then, the Xorth would have been far 
from conquered, and its superior resources and larger 
armies must have won in the end. Perhaps, after 
all, Jackson's death was, in a way, a blessing, since 
it shortened a struggle which, in any event, could 
have had but one result. 

Another heavy loss which the Confederacy suf- 

302 



Great Soldiers 

fered even earlier in the war was that of Albert 
Sidney Johnston, killed at the battle of Shiloh. Jef- 
ferson Davis said the cause of the South was lost 
when Johnston fell, but this was, of course, only a 
manner of speaking, for Johnston could not have 
saved it. Johnston had an adventurous career and 
saw a great deal of fighting before the Civil War 
began. Graduating at West Point in 1826, he served 
as chief of staff to General Atkinson during the 
Black Hawk war, and then, joining the Texan rev- 
olutionists, served first as a private and then as com- 
mander of the Texan army. He commanded a regi- 
ment in the war with Mexico, and in 1857, led a 
successful expedition against the rebellious Mormons 
in Utah. 

His training, then, and an experience greater than 
any other commander in the Civil War started out 
with, fitted him for brilliant work from the very 
first. At the outbreak of the war, he was put by 
the Confederate government in command of the de- 
partments of Kentucky and Tennessee, and on April 
6, 1862, swept down upon Grant's unprotected army 
at Shiloh. That battle might have ended in a dis- 
astrous defeat for the ^orth but for the accident 
which deprived the Confederates of their commander. 
About the middle of the afternoon, while leading 
his men forward to the attack which was ^Dressing 
the Federals back upon the river, he was struck by 
a bullet which severed an artery in the thigh. The 
wound was not a fatal, nor even a very serious, one, 
and his life could have been saved had it been given 

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A Guide to Biographj 

immediate attention. But Johnston, carried away 
by the prospect of impending victory and the ex- 
citement of the fight, continued in the saddle cheer- 
ing on his men, his life-blood pulsing away unheeded, 
until he sank unconscious into the arms of one of 
his ofiicers. He was lifted to the ground and a 
surgeon hastily summoned. But it was too late. 

Johnston's death left the command of the army 
to General Pierre Beauregard, who had had the 
somewhat dubious honor of firing the first shot of 
the war against Fort Sumter and of capturing the 
little garrison which defended it. Beauregard was 
a West Point man, standing high in his class, and 
his work, previous to the war, was largely in the 
engineer corps. When the war began, he was super- 
intendent of the academy at West Point, but resigned 
at once to join the South. After the capture of 
Sumter, he was ordered to Virginia and was in prac- 
tical command at the first battle of Bull Run, which 
resulted in the rout of the Union forces. After that, 
he was sent to Tennessee, as second in command to 
Albert Sidney Johnston, and he succeeded to the 
command of the army on Johnston's death at Shiloh. 

The first day's fighting at Shiloh had resulted in 
a Confederate victory, but Beauregard was not able 
to maintain this advantage on the second day, and 
was finally compelled to draw off his forces. Grant 
pursued him, and Beauregard was forced to retreat 
far to the south before he was safe from capture. 
Two years later, he attempted to stop Sherman on 
his march to the sea, but was unable to do so, and, 

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Great Soldiers 

joining forces with Joseph E. Johnston, surrendered 
to Sherman a few days after Appomattox. 

Joseph E. Johnston had been a classmate of Lee 
at West Point, and had seen much service before 
the Civil AYar began. He was aide-de-camp to Gen- 
eral Scott in the Black Hawk war; and in the war 
with the Florida Indians, was brevetted for gallantry 
in rescuing the force he commanded from an ambush 
into which it had been lured, the fight being so des- 
perate that, besides being wounded, no less than 
thirty bullets penetrated his clothes. In the war with 
Mexico he was thrice brevetted for gallantry, and 
was seriously wounded at Cerro Gordo and again at 
Chapultepec. At the beginning of the Civil War, 
he was quartermaster-general of the United States 
army, resigning that position to take service with the 
South. 

When McDowell advanced against Beauregard at 
Bull Run, Johnston, who was at Winchester, has- 
tened with his army to the scene of battle, and this 
reinforcement, which McDowell had endeavored 
vainly to prevent, won the day for the Confederates. 
He remained in command at Richmond, opposing 
McClellan^s advance up the peninsula, but was badly 
wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, and was in- 
capacitated for duty for several months, Lee suc- 
ceeding him in command of the army. 

Johnston was never again to gain any great vic- 
tories, for he had in some way incurred the ill-will 
of Jefferson Davis, and was placed in one impossible 
position after another, sent to meet an enemy which 

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A Guide to Biography 

always outnumbered him, and refused the assistance 
which he should have had. The last of these tasks 
was that of stopping Sherman's march to the sea, but 
Sherman had sixty thousand men to his seventeen 
thousand, and a battle was out of the question. 

After Lee's surrender, Davis fled south to Greens- 
boro, where Johnston found him and advised that, 
since the war had been decided against them, it was 
their duty to end it without delay, as its further 
continuance • could accomplish nothing and would 
be mere murder. To this Davis reluctantly agreed, 
and Johnston thereupon sought Sherman and made 
terms of surrender for his army and Beauregard's. 
The terms which Sherman granted were rejected by 
Congress as too liberal, and another agreement was 
drawn up, similar to the one which had been signed 
between Grant and Lee. It is worth remarking that 
the Union generals in the field were disposed to treat 
their fallen foes with greater charity and kindness 
than the politicians in Congress, who had never seen 
a battlefield, and who were concerned, not with suc- 
coring a needy brother, but with wringing every 
possible advantage from the situation. 

To two other southern commanders we must give 
passing mention before turning from this period of 
our history. First of these is James Longstreet, who 
had the reputation of being the hardest fighter in 
the Confederate service, whose men were devoted to 
him, and called him affectionately " Old Pete." The 
army always felt secure when " Old Pete " was with 
it; and, indeed, he did not seem to know how to 

306 



Great Soldiers 

retreat. He held the Confederate right at Bull Rim, 
and the left at Fredericksburg; he saved Jackson 
from defeat by Pope, at the second battle of Bull 
Run; he was on the right at Gettysburg, and tried 
to dissuade Lee from the disastrous charge of the 
third day which resulted in Confederate defeat; he 
held the left at Chickamauga, did brilliant service in 
the Wilderness, and was included in the surrender 
at Appomattox. A sturdy and indomitable man, the 
Confederacy had good reason to be proud of him. 

The second is J. E. B. Stuart, as a cavalry leader 
second only to Jackson and Sheridan, but with his 
reputation shadowed by a fatal mistake. He was 
a past master of the sudden and daring raid, and 
on more than one occasion carried consternation into 
the enemy's camp by a brilliant dash through it. 
One of his most successful raids was made around 
McClellan's army on the peninsula, shaking its sense 
of security and threatening its communications. On 
another occasion, he dashed into Pope's camp, cap- 
tured his official correspondence and personal effects 
and made prisoners of several officers of his staff, 
Pope himself escaping only because he happened to 
be away from headquarters. The one shadow upon 
his military career, referred to above, was his ab- 
sence from the field of Gettysburg. 

He was directed to take a position on the right of 
the Confederate army, but started away on a raid in 
the rear of the Federals, not expecting a battle to be 
fought at once, and he did not get back to the main 
army until the battle of Gettysburg had been lost. 

307 



A Guide to Biography 

The absence of cavalry was a severe handicap to the 
Confederate army, and Lee always attributed his 
defeat to Stuart's absence; but Stuart maintained 
that he had acted under orders, and that the mis- 
take was not his. He w^as killed in a fight with 
Sheridan's cavalry at Yellow Tavern, Virginia, a 
short time later. 

And here we must end the story of the great sol- 
diers of the Confederacy. There were many others 
who fought well and bravely — Bragg, A. P. Hill, 
Magruder, Pcmberton — but none of them attained 
the dimensions of a national figure. Weighing the 
merits of the leaders of the two armies, they would 
seem to be pretty evenly balanced. This was natural 
enough, since all of them had had practically the 
same training and experience, and, during the war, 
the same opportunities. Lee, Jackson and Johnston 
were fairly matched by Grant, Sheridan and Sher- 
man. 

The Southern leaders, perhaps, showed more dash 
and vim than the Northern ones, for they waged a 
more desperate fight; but both sides fought with the 
highest valor, and if the war did not have for the 
IS'orth the poignant meaning it had for the South, 
it was because practically all of its battles were 
fought on southern soil, and the southern people saw 
their fair land devastated. In no instance did the 
North suffer any such burning humiliation as that 
inflicted on the South by Sherman in his march to 
the sea; at the close of the war, despite its sacrifice 
of blood and treasure, the North was more pros- 

308 



Great Soldiers 

perous tlian it had been at the beginning, while the 
South lay prostrate and ruined. So to the ISTorth 
the war has receded into the vista of memory, while 
to the South it is a wound not yet wholly healed. 

There have been no great American soldiers since 
the Civil War — at least, there has been no chance 
for them to prove their greatness, for there is only 
one test of a soldier and that is the battlefield. When 
George A. Custer was ambushed and his command 
wiped out by the Sioux in 1876, a wave of sorrow 
went over the land for the dashing, fair-haired leader 
and his devoted men; yet the very fact that he had 
led his men into a trap clouded such military reputa- 
tion as he had gained during the last years of the 
war. 

The war with Spain was too brief to make any 
reputations, though it was long enough to ruin sev- 
eral. The man who gained most glory in that con- 
flict was " Fighting Joe " Wheeler, veteran of Shiloh, 
of Murfreesboro, of Chickamauga, dashing like a 
gnat against Sherman's flanks, and annoying him 
mightily on that march to the sea; a southerner of 
the southerners, and yet with a great patriotism 
which sent him to the front in 1898, and a hard ex- 
perience which enabled him to save the day at San- 
tiago, when the general in command lay in a ham- 
mock far to the rear. 

Let us pause, too, for mention of iSTelson A. Miles, 
who had volunteered at the opening of the Civil 
AYar, fought in every battle of the Army of the 

309 



A Guide to Biography 

Potomac lip to tlie surrender at Appomattox, been 
tlirice wounded and as many times brevetted for gal- 
lantry; the conqueror of tbe Cheyenne, Comanche 
and Sioux Indians in the years following the war; 
and finally attaining the rank of commander-in- 
chief of the army of the United States; to find him- 
self, as Winfield Scott had done, at odds politically 
with the head of the War Department and with the 
President, and kept at home when a war was raging. 
Por the same reason as Scott had been, perhaps, 
since some of his admirers had talked of him for 
the presidency. He was released, at last, to com- 
mand the expedition against Porto Pico, which re- 
sulted in the complete and speedy subjugation of 
that island. A careful and intelligent, if not a bril- 
liant soldier, he is, perhaps, the most eminent figure 
which the years since the great rebellion have 
developed. 

Looking back over the military history of the 
country since its beginning, it is evident that Amer- 
ica has produced no soldier of commanding genius 
— no soldier, for instance, to rank with ISTapoleon, 
who, at his prime, seemed able to compel victory; or 
with Frederick the Great, that past master of the 
art of war. Yet it should be remembered that both 
these men were soldiers all their lives, and that they 
stand practically unmatched in modern history. Of 
the next rank — the rank of "Wellington and Yon 
Moltke — ^we have, at least, three, Washington, Lee, 
and Grant; while to match such impetuous and fiery 

310 



Great Soldiers 

leaders as ISTej, and Lannes, and Soult, we have Harry 
Lee, Marion, Sheridan, Jackson, and Albert Sidney 
Johnston. So America has no reason to blush for 
her military achievements — more especially since her 
history has been one of peace^ save for fifteen years 
out of the one himdred and thirty-three of her ex- 
istence. 

SUMMARY 

Putnam Israel. Born at Salem, Massachusetts, 
January 7, 1718; served in French and Indian war, 
1755-62; in Pontiac's war, 1764; one of the command- 
ing officers at battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775; 
major-general in Continental army, 1775; took part in 
siege of Boston, 1775-76; commanded at defeat on 
Long Island, August 27, 1776; commanded in high- 
lands of the Hudson, 1777; served in Connecticut, 
1778-79; disabled by a stroke of paralysis, 1779; died 
at Brooklyn, Connecticut, May 19, 1790. 

Gates, Horatio. Born at Maldon, England, in 
1728; served as captain under Braddock, 1755; settled 
in Berkeley County, Virginia; adjutant-general in Con- 
tinental army, 1775; succeeded Schuyler as commander 
in the North, 1777; received Burgoyne's surrender, 
October 17, 1777; President of the Board of War and 
Ordnance, November, 1777; appointed to command in 
the South, 1780; totally defeated by Cornwallis at Cam- 
den, South Carolina, August 16, 1780; succeeded by 
General Greene; died at New York City, April 10, 
1806. 

Arnold, Benedict. Born at Norwich, Connecticut, 
January 14, 1741; commissioned colonel, 1775; took 

311 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

part in capture of Ticonderoga, 1775; commanded ex- 
pedition against Quebec, 1775; made brigadier-general 
and commanded at a naval battle on Lake Cham- 
plain, 1776; decided the second battle of Saratoga, 
1777; appointed commander of Philadelphia, 1778; 
tried by court-martial and rejDrimanded by Wash- 
ington, 1780; appointed commander of West Point, 
1780; treason discovered by Washington, September 
23, 1780; conducted British expeditions against Vir- 
ginia and Connecticut, 1781 ; died at London, June 14, 
1801. 

Gkeene, Nathanael. Bom at Warwick, Ehode 
Island, May 24, 1742; distinguished himself at Tren- 
ton, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown, and suc- 
ceeded Gates in command of the southern army, 1780; 
conducted retreat from the Catawba to the Dan, 1781; 
won victories of Guildford Court House and Eutaw 
Springs, 1781; died near Savannah, Georgia, June 19, 
1786. 

Marion, Francis. Born at Winyaw, South Caro- 
lina, 1732; a partisan leader in South Carolina, 1780- 
82; served at Eutaw Springs, 1781; died near Eutaw, 
South Carolina, February 27, 1795. 

Sumter, Thomas. Born in Virginia in 1734; in 
Braddock campaign, 1755; lieutenant-colonel of regi- 
ment of South Carolina riflemen, 1776; defeated 
Tories at Hanging Eock, August 6, 1780; defeated by 
Tarleton at Fishing Creek, August 18, 1780; defeated 
Tarleton at Blackstock Hill, November 20, 1780; mem- 
ber of Congi-ess from South Carolina, 1789-93; senator, 
1801-09; minister to Brazil, 1809-11; died near Cam- 
den, South Carolina, June 1, 1832. 

312 



Great Soldiers 

Lee, Henry. Born in Westmoreland County, Vir- 
ginia, January 29, 1756; distinguished in Revolution 
as commander of " Lee's Legion " ; governor of Vir- 
ginia, 1792-95; member of Congress, 1799-1801; died 
at Cumberland Island, Georgia, March 25, 1818. 

St. Clair, Arthur. Born at Thurso, Scotland, 
1734; served at Louisburg and at Quebec, 1758; re- 
signed from British army and settled in Ligonier valley, 
Pennsylvania, 1764; appointed colonel, January 3, 
1776; brigadier-general, August 9, 1776; organized 
New Jersey militia and participated in battles of Tren- 
ton and Princeton; major-general, February 19, 1777; 
succeeded Gates in command at Ticonderoga, and aban- 
doned fort at approach of Burgoyne's army, July, 
1777; court-martialed in consequence, 1778, and ac- 
quitted " with the highest honor " ; succeeded Arnold 
in command of West Point, 1780; before Yorktown at 
surrender of Cornwallis, and in South till close of war; 
delegate to Continental Congress, 1785-87; governor 
of Northwest Territory, 1789-1802; defeated by In- 
dians near Miami villages, November 4, 1791; died at 
Greensburg, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1818. 

Wayne, Anthony. Born in Chester County, Penn- 
sylvania, January 1, 1745; member of Pennsylvania 
legislature, 1774; colonel of Pennsylvania troops in 
Canada, 1776; brigadier-general, 1777; served at 
Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth; stormed 
Stony Point, July 15, 1779; commanded at Green 
Spring, 1781; served at Yorktown; member of Con- 
gress from Georgia, 1791-92; appointed major-general 
and commander-in-chief of the army, 1792; won the 
battle of Fallen Timbers, 1794; negotiated treaty of 

313 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

Greenville, 1795; died at Erie, Pennsylvania, Decem- 
ber 15, 1796. 

Scott, Winfield. Born near Petersburg, Virginia, 
June 13, 1786; admitted to the bar, 1806; entered 
United States army as captain, 1808; served in war of 
1812, distinguishing himself at Queenstown Heights, 
Chippewa and Lundy's Lane; brigadier-general and 
brevet major-general, 1814; served against Seminoles 
and Creeks, 1835-37; major-general and commander- 
in-chief of the army, 1841; appointed to chief com- 
mand in Mexico, 1847; took Vera Cruz, won battles of 
Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Eey 
and Chapultepec and entered City of Mexico, Septem- 
ber 14, 1847; unsuccessful Whig candidate for Presi- 
dent, 1852; retired from active service, 1861; died at 
West Point, New York, May 29, 1866. 

McClellan, George Brintoi^. Born at Philadel- 
phia, December 3, 1826; graduated at West Point, 
1846 ; served in Mexican war, 1846-47 ; sent to Europe 
to observe Crimean war, 1855-56; in railroad business, 
1857-61; major-general of volunteers, April, 1861; 
cleared West Virginia of Confederates, June and July, 
1861; commander Department of the Potomac, August, 
1861; organized Army of the Potomac and conducted 
Peninsula campaign, 1861-62; superseded by Burnside, 
November 7, 1862; Democratic candidate for Presi- 
dent, 1864; governor of New Jersey, 1878-81; died at 
Orange, New Jersey, October 29, 1885. 

Burnside, Ambrose Everett. Born at Liberty, In- 
diana, May 23, 1824; captured Eoanoke Island and 
Newbern, February-March, 1862; fought at Antietam, 
September 17, 1862 ; commanded Army of the Potomac, 

314 



Great Soldiers 

ISTovember 7, 1862-Jannary 26, 1863; defeated at 
Fredericksburg, December, 1862; governor of Ehode 
Island, 1867-69; senator, 1875-81; died at Bristol, 
Rhode Island, September 13, 1881. 

Hooker, Joseph. Born at Hadley, Massachusetts, 
November 13, 1814; graduated at West Point, 1837; 
served as captain in Mexican war; brigadier-general, 
1861; corps commander at South Mountain, Antietam, 
and Fredericksburg; commander of Army of the Poto- 
mac, January 25, 1863 ; defeated by Lee at Chancellors- 
ville, May 2-3, 1863; relieved of command, June 27, 
1863; served in Chattanooga campaign and with Sher- 
man; died at Garden City, New York, October 31, 1879. 

Sherman, William Tecumseh. Born at Lancaster, 
Ohio, February 8, 1820; graduated at West Point, 
1840; served in California during Mexican war; colo- 
nel in Union army, 1861 ; brigadier-general, 1861 ; was 
at Bull Eun and Shiloh, and made major-general of 
volunteers. May 1, 1862; served at Chattanooga and 
Vicksburg, won battles of Dalton, Resaca, Kenesaw 
Mountain, and Peachtree Creek; made major-general 
in regular army, August 12, 1864; occupied Atlanta, 
September 2, 1864; started on march to the sea, No- 
vember 12, 1864; entered Savannah, December 21, 
1864; received surrender of Johnston's army, April 26, 
1865; lieutenant-general, 1866; general and com- 
mander of the army, 1869; retired, 1884; died at New 
York City, February 14, 1891. 

Sheridan, Philip Henry. Born at Albany, New 
York, March 6, 1831; graduated at West Point, 1853; 
captain, 1861; colonel of cavalry, 1862; at Perryville, 
Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge; 

315 



A Guide to Biography 

commaTicler of cavalry corps of Army of the Potomac, 
April, 1864; at Wilderness, Hawe's Shop and Trevel- 
lian; won victories of Winchester, Fisher's Hill, Cedar 
Creek, and devastated Shenandoah Valley, 1864 ; major- 
general, November 8, 1864; commanded at Five Forks, 
March 31, April 1, 1865; took leading part in pursuit 
of Lee; lieutenant-general, 1867; succeeded Sherman 
as commander-in-chief, 1883; general, 1888; died at 
Nonquith, Massachusetts, August 5, 1888. 

Thomas, George Henry. Born in Southampton 
County, Virginia, July 31, 1816; graduated at West 
Point, 1840; served in Seminole and Mexican wars; 
brigadier-general of volunteers, August, 1861 ; at Mill 
Springs, Perryville and Murfreesboro ; became famous 
for his defense of Union position at Chickamauga, Sep- 
tember 19-20, 1863; with Sherman in Georgia, 1864; 
defeated Hood at Nashville, December 15-16, 1864; 
died at San Francisco, March 28, 1870. 

Lee, Robert Edward. Born in Westmoreland 
County, Virginia, January 19, 1807; graduated at West 
Point, 1829; served with distinction in Mexican war; 
superintendent of West Point Academy, 1852-55 ; com- 
manded forces which captured John Brown, 1859 ; re- 
signed commission in United States Army, April, 1861 ; 
appointed major-general of Virginia forces, April, 
1861 ; commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, 
June 3, 1862; commanded in Seven Days' Battles, 
Manassas campaign, at Antietam and Fredericksburg, 
1862; Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, 1863; against 
Grant at Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and 
Petersburg, 1864-65; surrendered to Grant at Ap- 
pomattox, April 9, 1865; president of Washington Col- 

316 



Great Soldiers 

lege, Lexington, Virginia, 1865-70; died at Lexington, 
Virginia, October 12, 1870. 

Jackson, Thomas Jonathan. Born at Clarksburg, 
West Virginia, January 21, 1824; graduated at West 
Point, 1846 ; served through Mexican war and resigned 
from army, 1851 ; professor of philosophy and artillery 
tactics Virginia Military Institute, 1851-61; joined 
Confederate army at opening of Civil War; brigadier- 
general at Bull Eun, July 21, 1861; major-general, 
November, 1861 ; at Winchester, Cross Keys, Gaines's 
Mill, Malvern Hill, Cedar Mountain, Harper's Ferry, 
Antietam and Fredericksburg, 1862 ; mortally wounded 
by his own men at Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863; died 
at Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 10, 1863. 

Johnston, Albert Sidney. Born at Washington, 
Mason County, Kentucky, February 3, 1803 ; graduated 
at West Point, 1826; served in Black Hawk war, 1832; 
resigned from army, 1834; enlisted as private in Texan 
army, 1836; succeeded Felix Houston as commander of 
Texan army, 1837; secretary of war for Eepublic of 
Texas, 1838-40; served in Mexican war, 1846-47; com- 
manded successful expedition against revolted Mormons 
in Utah, 1857; appointed commander of Department of 
Kentucky and Tennessee in Confederate service, 1861 ; 
attacked Grant's army at Shiloh, April 6, 1862, and 
killed there while leading his men. 

Beauregard, Pierre Gustave Toutant. Born near 
New Orleans, May 23, 1818 ; graduated at West Point, 
1838; served with distinction in Mexican war; super- 
intendent of West Point Academy, 1860-61 ; resigned 
to accept appointment as brigadier-general in Confed- 
erate army, 1861; bombarded and captured Fort Sum- 

317 



A Guide to Biogi-aplij 

ter, April 12-14, 1861; commanded at battle of Bull 
Eun, July 21, 1861; general, 1861; assumed command 
of army at Shiloli on death of Johnston, April 6, 1862; 
surrendered to Sherman, 1865; president of New Or- 
leans and Jackson Railroad Company, 1865-70; adju- 
tant-general of Louisiana, 1878; died at New Orleans, 
Tebruary 20, 1893. 

Johnston, Joseph Eccleston. Born near Farm- 
ville, Virginia, February 3, 1807; graduated at West 
Point, 1829; served in Mexican war, 1846-47; entered 
Confederate service as brigadier-general, 1861 ; took 
part in battle of Bull Eun, opposed McClellan in 
Peninsular campaign, fought battles of Eesaca and 
Dallas against Sherman, and surrendered to Sherman 
at Durham Station, North Carolina, April 26, 1865; 
member of Congress, 1876-78; United States Commis- 
sioner of Railways, 1885-89; died at Washington, 
D. C, March 21, 1891. 

LoNGSTEEET, James. Born in Edgefield District, 
South Carolina, January 8, 1821 ; graduated at West 
Point, 1842; served in Mexican war, 1846-47; entered 
Confederate service as brigadier-general, 1861; pro- 
moted major-general, 1861; was present at second bat- 
tle of Bull Eun, Antietam, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, 
Knoxville and the Wilderness; United States minister 
to Turkey, 1880-81; United States Commissioner of 
Pacific Eailroads, 1897; died January 2, 1904. 

Stuart, James Ewell Brown. Born in Patrick 
County, Virginia, February 6, 1833 ; graduated at West 
Point, 1854; entered Confederate service, 1861, and 
became leading cavalry officer in Army of Northern 
Virginia; at Bull Run, Peninsula, Manassas Junction, 

318 



Great Soldiers 

Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville ; mor- 
tally wounded at battle of Yellow Tavern, and died at 
Richmond, May 12, 1864. 

Wheeler, Joseph. Born in Augusta, Georgia, Sep- 
tember 10, 1836; graduated at West Point, 1859; en- 
tered Confederate army as colonel; at Shiloli, Green 
Eiver, Perry ville; brigadier-general, 1862; major-gen- 
eral, 1863; at Murfreesboro, commanded cavalry at 
Chickamauga, fought Sherman almost daily on the 
march to the sea; included in Johnston's surrender, 
April 26, 1865; member of Congress, from Alabama, 
1881-99; appointed major-general of volunteers, U. S. 
A., May 4, 1898; in command of cavalry at Las Guasi- 
mas and before Santiago; in Philippine Islands, 1899- 
1900; died at Brooklyn, New York, January 25, 1906. 

Miles, Nelsox Appleton". Born at Westminster, 
Massachusetts, August 8, 1839 ; entered Union army as 
volunteer, 1861, attaining rank of major-general of 
volunteers; enlisted in regular army at close of war, 
rising grade by grade to major-general, and commander- 
in-chief, 1895-1903; conducted campaigns against 
Geronimo and Natchez, 1886; in command of United 
States troops at Chicago strike, 1884; lieutenant-gen- 
eral, June 6, 1900; retired, August 8, 1903. 



319 



CHAPTER YIII 

GREAT SAILORS 

WE have said that America has produced no 
soldier of commanding genius, but her sailors 
outrank the world. Even Great Britain, mighty 
seafaring nation as she has been, cannot, in the last 
hundred and fifty years, show any brighter galaxy 
of stars. Just why it would be difficult to say. Per- 
haps America inherited from England the traditions 
of that race of heroes who made the age of Elizabeth 
so memorable on the ocean, and who started their 
country on her career as mistress of the seas — • 
Raleigh, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, Gilbert, and 
Howard of Effingham. 

Surely in direct descent from these daring ad- 
venturers was that earliest of America's naval com- 
manders, John Paul Jones, well called the " Founder 
of the American Navy.'' He it was who first carried 
the Stars and Stripes into foreign waters, and who 
made Europe to see that a new nation had arisen 
in the west. He it was who first scouted the tradi- 
tion of England's invincibility on the sea, and carried 
the war into her very ports. He it was who proved 
that American valor yielded no whit to British valor 
— who, when Captain Pearson, of the Serapis, asked 

320 



Great Sailors 

if lie Lad struck his colors, shouted back that lie 
had not yet begun to fight, although his ship had 
been shot to pieces and was sinking; but who there- 
upon did begin, and to such good purpose that he 
captured his adversary and got his crew aboard her 
as his own ship sank. Truly a remarkable man and 
one worth looking at closely. 

In the middle of the eighteenth century, there 
lived in the county of Kirkcudbright, Scotland, a 
poor gardener named John Paul. He had a large 
family, and finding it no small task to feed so many 
mouths, accepted the offer of a distant relative named 
William Jones to adopt his oldest son, William, 
named in honor of that same relative. Jones owned 
a plantation in Virginia, and thither the boy ac- 
companied him, being known thereafter as William 
Paul Jones. N^one of John Paul's numerous chil- 
dren, however, would have figured on the pages of 
history but for the youngest son, born in 1747, and 
named after his father, John Paul. 

Little John Paul had a short childhood, for as 
soon as he could handle a line, he was put to work 
with the fishermen on Solway Firth to help earn a 
living for the family. By the time that he was 
twelve years old, he was a first-class sailor, and had 
developed a love for the sea and a disregard of its 
perils which never left him. Securing his father's 
consent, he shipped as apprentice for a voyage to 
Virginia, and visited his brother, who was managing 
his adopted father's estate near Fredericksburg. The 
old planter took a great fancy to the boy, and offered 

321 



A Guide to Biography 

to adopt him also, but young John Paul preferred 
the adventurous life of the ocean to humdrum ex- 
istence on a Virginia plantation. For the next fif- 
teen years, he followed the sea, studying navigation 
and naval history, French and Spanish, and fit- 
ting himself in every way for high rant in his pro- 
fession. 

On the seventeenth of April, 1YY3, John Paul 
anchored his brig, the Two Friends, in the Rap- 
pahannock just below his brother's plantation, and 
rowed to shore to pay him a visit. He found him 
breathing his last. He died childless, and John Paul 
found himself heir to the estate, which was a con- 
siderable one. Resigning command of his vessel, he 
settled down to the life of a Virginia planter, adding 
to his name the last name of his family's benefactor, 
and being known thereafter as John Paul Jones. 

Events were at this time hurrying forward toward 
war with Great Britain; Virginia was in a ferment, 
and Paul Jones was soon caught up by this tide of 
patriotism. When, in 1775, the Congress decided to 
" equip a navy for the defence of American liberty," 
Jones at once offered his services, and was made a 
senior first lieutenant. It is amusing to run over 
the names of those first officers of the American 
navy. As was the case with the first generals, out 
of the whole list only two names live with any 
lustre — Paul Jones and Nicholas Biddle. 

Paul Jones was the first of these officers to re- 
ceive his commission, John Hancock handing it to 
him in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, shortly after 

322 



Great Sailors 

noon on December 22, 1775. Immediately after- 
wards, the new lieutenant, accompanied by a dis- 
tinguished party, including Hancock and Thomas 
Jefferson, proceeded to the Chestnut street wharf, 
where the Alfred, the first American man-of-war was 
lying moored. Captain Saltonstall, who was to com- 
mand the ship, had not yet arrived from Boston, and 
at Hancock's direction. Lieutenant Jones took com- 
mand, and ran up the first American flag ever shown 
from the masthead of a man-of-war. It was not the 
Stars and Stripes, which had not yet been adopted 
as the flag of the United States, but a flag showing 
a rattlesnake coiled at the foot of a pine-tree, with 
the words, " Don't tread on me." 

Three other small vessels were soon placed in 
commission, and the squadron started out on its first 
cruise on February 17, 1776. Through the inex- 
perience and incompetency of the officers, the cruise 
was a complete failure, and resulted in the dis- 
missal of " Commander-in-Chief " Ezekial Hopkins, 
and the retirement of Jones's immediate superior. 
Captain Dudley Saltonstall. It was a striking ex- 
ample of how the first blast of battle winnows the 
wheat from the chaff, and its best result was to give 
Paul Jones a command of his o^vn. ITever there- 
after was he forced to serve under an imbecile su- 
perior, but was always, to the end of his career, the 
ranking officer on his station. 

His first command was a small one, the sloop-of- 
war Providence, with fourteen guns and 107 men, 
but in six weeks he had captured sixteen prizes, of 

323 



A Guide to Biography 

■whicli eight were manned and sent to port, and eight 
destroyed at sea; was twice chased by frigates, es- 
caping capture only by the most brilliant manoeu- 
vring; and made two descents on the coast of Nova 
Scotia, releasing some American prisoners, captur- 
ing arms and ammunition, dispersing a force of 
Tories, and destroying a number of fishing smacks; 
and finally reached port again with a crew of forty- 
seven, all the rest having been told off to man his 
prizes. 

Work of so brilliant a description won instant rec- 
ognition, especially as contrasted with the failure of 
the first cruise, and Jones was promoted to a cap- 
taincy, and the Alfred, a ship mounting twenty-eight 
gims, added to his command. A cruise of thirty-three 
days in these two vessels resulted in seven prizes, 
two of them armed transports loaded with supplies 
for the British army. 

Fired by these successes, Jones's great ambition 
was for a cruise along the coast of England. He 
argued that the time had come when the American 
flag should be shown in European waters, and that 
the moral effect of a descent upon the English coast 
would be tremendous. It would have this further 
advantage, that England was expecting no such at- 
tack, that her ports would be found unprepared for 
it, and that great damage to her shipping could prob- 
ably be done. Lafayette, who had become a warm 
friend of the daring captain, heartily approved the 
plan, and on June 14, 1777, the Congress passed the 
follovdng resolution: 

324 



Great Sailors 

Resolved, That the Flag of the Thirteen United States of 
America be Thirteen Stripes, Alternate Red and White ; that 
the Union be Thirteen Stars in a Blue Field, Representing a 
New Constellation. 

Resolved, That Captain John Paul Jones be Appointed to 
Command the Ship Ranger. 

That these two acts should have been joined in 
one resolution seems a remarkable coincidence. 
" The flag and I are twins/' Jones used to say; " we 
cannot be parted in life or death " ; and it was this 
flag he carried with him when he sailed from Ports- 
mouth in the dawn of the first day of November, 
1777. Something else he carried, too — dispatches 
which had been placed in his hands only a few hours 
before, telling of Burgoyne's surrender. " I will 
spread the news in France in thirty days," Jones 
promised, as his ship cast loose, and he actually did 
land at ISTantes thirty-one days later. The news he 
brought decided France in favor of an alliance with 
the United States, and the Treaty of Alliance was 
signed two months later. 

Jones, meanwhile, had overhauled and refitted his 
ship, and on the tenth of April, set sail from Brest, 
intending to make a complete circuit of the British 
Isles. Entering the Irish Sea, he spread terror along 
its shores, where his coming was like a bolt from 
the blue, engaged and captured the British ship-of- 
war Drake, took a number of prizes, and sailed 
into Brest again after an absence of twenty-eight 
days. 

It has been the fashion in some quarters to call 

325 



A Guide to Biography 

Jones a pirate, but it is difficult to see any argument 
for sucli a characterization of him. He sailed under 
the flag of the United States, held a commission from 
the United States, and attacked an enemy with whom 
the United States was at war. There is no hint of 
piracy about that; but Jones came to be a sort of 
bogeyman to the coast towns of the British Isles, 
who never knew when to expect an attack from him, 
and no name was too hard for their frightened in- 
habitants to apply to him. 

But it was some time before Jones was able to 
strike another blow. He realized that he must have a 
more effective squadron for his second cruise, and 
more than a year was spent in getting it together. 
Uinally, on August 14, 1779, he got to sea again 
with a squadron of four vessels — ^not a very effective 
one, but the best that could be had. The flagship 
was an unwieldy old Indiaman which Jones had 
named the Bon Homme Richard, in honor of his 
good friend, Benjamin Franklin, whose Poor Rich- 
ard was almost as famous in France as in Amer- 
ica. The other three ships were commanded by 
Frenchmen, and all the crews were of the most mot- 
ley description. On September 23, the squadron 
sighted a great fleet of English merchantmen, under 
convoy of the Serapis, a powerful frigate mounting 
forty-four guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, 
mounting twenty-eight. Jones signalled his squadron 
to give chase and himself closed with the Serapis. 

Captain Pearson, of the Serapis, was very willing 
for the contest, since his ship was greatly superior 

326 



Great Sailors 

to Jones's old boat in figliting qualities; but Jones 
succeeded in depriving the Serapis of some of this 
advantage by running his vessel into her and lash- 
ing fast. So close did thej lie that their yardarms 
interlocked, and their rigging was soon so fouled 
that Jones could not have got away, even had he 
wished to do so. For three hours the ships lay there, 
side by side, pouring broadsides into each other; 
their decks were soon covered with dead and 
wounded; two of the Richard's guns burst and her 
main battery was silenced, but Jones kept fight- 
ing on, for a time with so few gims that the captain 
of the Serapis thought he had surrendered. 

"Have you struck?" he shouted, through his 
trumpet. 

" JSTo," Jones shouted back, " I have not yet begun 
to fight! " 

The Serapis was on fire and the Richard was sink- 
ing, but at this juncture, one of the men of the Rich- 
ard crept out along a yardarm, and dropped a hand 
grenade down a hatchway of the Serapis. It wrought 
fearful havoc, and Pearson struck his fiag. 

It was time, for the Richard was on fire in two 
places, all her main-deck guns were dismounted, and 
she was sinking fast. She was kept afloat with great 
difficulty until morning, giving Jones time to place 
his wounded on the Serapis, and to save such of her 
fittings as could be removed. The Pallas, another of 
Jones's ships, had captured the Scarborough, and 
with these prizes, Jones put back to France. He was 
welcomed with great enthusiasm there, received 

327 



A Guide to Biograplij 

the thanks of the Congress, and was designated to 
command the ship-of-the-line then building. But 
he fought no more battles under the Stars and 
Stripes. After a brief service with Russia, he re- 
turned to Paris, broken in health, and died there in 
1792. His body was only recently brought to this 
country and interred with national honors at An- 
napolis. 

We have said that there was only one other naval 
commander of the Revolution whose name shines 
with any lustre to-day — Nicholas Biddle. His career 
was a brief and brilliant one. Born in Philadelphia, 
he had gone to sea at the age of thirteen, was cast 
away on a desert island, was rescued, and enlisted in 
the English navy, but returned to America as soon 
as revolution threatened. He was given command of 
a little brig called the Andrea Doria, took a number 
of prizes, and made so good a record that in 1776 
he was appointed to command the new frigate, Ran- 
dolph. Using Charleston, South Carolina, as his 
base, he captured four prizes within a few days, but 
on his second cruise, fell in with a British sixty-four, 
the Yarmouth. After a sharp action of twenty min- 
utes, fire got into the magazine of the Randolph, in 
some way, and she blew up, only four of her crew 
of 310 escaping. The blow was a heavy one to the 
American navy, for Biddle was its best commander, 
next to Jones, and the Randolph was its best ship. 
Luckily the French alliance placed the French fleet 
at the disposal of the colonies — or Cornwallis would 
never have been captured at Yorktown. 

328 



Great Sailors 

It is one of our polite fictions tliat the United 
States lias always been victorious in war; but, as a 
matter of fact, we were not victorious in tbe second 
war with England, and, wben tbe treaty of peace 
came to be signed, abandoned practically all tlie 
contentions wliicb war had been declared to main- 
tain. On land, the war was, for the most part, a 
series of costly blunders, beginning with the sur- 
render of Detroit, and closing with the sack of Wash- 
ington, and had England had her hands free of 
Napoleon, the result for us might have been very 
serious. The only considerable and decisive victory 
won by American arms was that of Andrew Jackson 
at ^New Orleans — a battle fought after the treaty of 
peace had been signed. 

But on the ocean there was a different story — 
a series of brilliant victories which, while they did 
not seriously cripple the great English navy, caused 
Canning to declare in Parliament that " the sacred 
spell of the invincibility of the British navy is 
broken.'' The heaviest blow was struck to British 
commerce, no less than sixteen hundred English 
merchantmen falling victims to privateers and ships- 
of-war. 

The group of men who commanded the American 
vessels was a most remarkable one, and their fight- 
ing qualities w^ere worthy in every way of John 
Paul Jones. Eirst blood was drawn by David Porter, 
illustrious scion of a family which gave five genera- 
tions to brilliant service in the navy. On August 
13, 1812, Porter, with the Essex, engaged in a sharp 

329 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

battle witli the Britisli ship Alert, v/hich, after an 
action of eight minutes, surrendered in a sinking 
condition. He had seen hard service before that, 
had been twice impressed bj British vessels and twice 
escaped, had fought French and pirates, and spent 
some time in a prison in Tripoli. 

After his capture of the Alert, he went on a cruise 
in the Pacific, destroying the English whale fisheries 
there, capturing booty valued at two and a half 
million dollars, and taking four hundred prisoners. 
So great was the damage he inflicted, that a British 
squadron was fitted out and sent to the Pacific to 
capture him, found him in a partially disabled condi- 
tion in the harbor of Valparaiso, and, disregarding 
the neutrality of the port, sailed in and attacked 
him. The engagement lasted two hours and a half, 
the Essex finally surrendering when reduced to a 
helpless wreck. On the Essex at the time was a mid- 
shipman aged twelve years, who got his first taste of 
fighting there, and whose name was destined to be- 
come, after that of Paul Jones, the most famous in 
American naval history — David Glasgow Farragut. 

Less than a week after Porter's victory over the 
Alert, another and much more important one was 
won by Captain Isaac Hull in the frigate Consti- 
tution — " Old Ironsides " — the most famous ship-of- 
war the navy has ever possessed. Isaac Hull was a 
nephew of General William Hull, who, on August 
16, 1812, surrendered Detroit and his entire army 
to the British without striking a blow. Three days 
later, Isaac Hull, having sailed from Boston without 

330 



Great Sailors 

orders, in his anxiety to meet tlie enemy and for 
fear the command of the Constitution would be given 
to some one else — a breach of discipline for which 
he would probably have been court-martialled and 
shot, had the cruise ended disastrously — fell in with 
the powerful British frigate Guerriere. Inscribed 
across the Guerriere's mainsail in huge red letters 
were the words : 

All who meet me have a care, 
I am England's Guerriere. 

She was a powerful vessel, but neither the vessel 
nor the menace frightened Hull, and he sailed 
straight for her, holding his fire until he was within 
fifty yards, when he let fly a broadside and then 
another, which sent two of her masts by the board, 
and the third soon followed, leaving her unmanage- 
able. Within a very few minutes, under Hull's rak- 
ing fire, she was reduced to a " perfect wreck " — 
so perfect, in fact, that she had to be blown up and 
sunk, as there was no chance of getting her back to 
port. The Constitution was practically uninjured, 
and Hull sailed back to Boston, with his ship crowded 
with British prisoners. He was welcomed with the 
Avildest enthusiasm, banquets were given in his honor, 
swords voted him by state legislatures, ISTew York 
ordered a portrait painted of him, and Congress 
gave him a gold medal. The War Department dis- 
creetly permitted his disobedience of orders to drop 
out of sight. 

331 



A Guide to Biography 

Hull's victory was not the result of accident, but 
of long and careful training. He had begun bis 
sea career in the merchant service at the age of 
fourteen, was a captain at the age of twenty, and 
entered the navy in 1798. He soon gained a high 
reputation for seamanship, and his genius for han- 
dling a ship under all conditions was one of the most 
important factors in his success. He saved his ship 
on one occasion, when she was becalmed and prac- 
tically surrounded by a powerful British fleet, by 
" kedging " — in other words, sending a row-boat out 
with an anchor, which was dropped as far ahead as 
the boat could take it, and the ship pulled up to 
it by means of the windlass. As soon as the British 
saw him doing this, they tried it too, but Hull man- 
aged to get away from them by almost superhuman 
exertions. He served in the navy for many years 
after his memorable victory over the Guerriere, but 
never achieved another so notable. 

The second capture of a British frigate in the war 
of 1812 was made by Stephen Decatur, who had 
distinguished himself years before by an exploit 
which Lord Nelson called " the most daring act of the 
age." Decatur, who possessed in unusual degree the 
dash and brilliance so valuable in a naval commander, 
came naturally by his love of the sea, for his grand- 
father had been an officer in the French navy, and 
his father was a captain in the navy of the United 
States. 

Entering the service at the age of eighteen, his 
first cruise was in the frigate. United States, which 

332 




Great Sailors 

lie was afterwards to command. He rose steadily 
in the service and got his first command six years 
later, being given the sixteen-gun brig Argus, and 
sent with Comniodore Preble to assist in subduing 
the Barbary corsairs. 

It is difficult to-day to realize that there was a time 
when the United States paid tribute to anybody, 
more especially to a power so insignificant as the 
Barbary States. Yet such was the fact. Lying 
along the north coast of Africa were the half-civilized 
states of Morocco, Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, and 
most of their income was from piracy. All mer- 
chantmen were their prey; they divided the loot and 
sold the crews into slavery. Many nations, to se- 
cure immunity from these outrages, paid a stated 
sum yearly to these powers, and the United States 
was one of them. 

Why the nations did not join together and wipe 
the pirates out of existence is difficult to understand, 
but so it was. On one occasion. Congress actually 
revoked an order for some new ships for the navy, 
and used the appropriation to buy off the Barbary 
powers. The fund was known as the " Mediterranean 
Fund," and was intrusted to the secretary of state 
to expend as might be necessary. But after a while, 
the Barbary powers became so outrageous in their 
demands, that it occurred to the State Department 
that there might be another way of dealing with 
them, and a squadron under Commodore Preble was 
sent to the Mediterranean for the purpose. 

Shortly before he reached there, the U. S. frigate 

333 



A Guide to Biography 

Philadelphia, commanded bj Captain Bainbridge, 
had gone upon a reef just outside the harbor of 
Tripoli and had been surrounded and captured, with 
all her crew, by the Tripolitan gunboats. The Tri- 
politans got her off the rocks, towed her into the 
harbor, and anchored her close under the guns of 
their forts. They also strengthened her batteries, 
and prepared her for a cruise, wdiich could not but 
have been disastrous to our shipping. It was evident 
that she must be destroyed before she got out of the 
harbor, and Stephen Decatur volunteered to lead a 
party into the harbor on this desperate mission. 
Commodore Preble hesitated to accept Decatur's 
offer, for he knew how greatly against success the 
odds were, but finally, in January, 1804, he told him 
to go ahead. 

A small vessel known as a ketch had recently 
been captured from the Tripolitans, and Decatur 
selected this in which to make the venture. He took 
seventy men from his own vessel, and, on the night 
of February 15, sailed boldly into the harbor of 
Tripoli. Let us pause for a minute to consider the 
odds against him. First there was the Philadelphia 
with her forty guns double-shotted and ready to 
fire; half a gunshot away was the Bashaw's castle, 
the mole and cro^ai batteries, while within range 
were ten other batteries, mounting, all told, a hun- 
dred and fifteen guns. Between the Philadelphia 
and the shore lay a number of Tripolitan cruisers, 
galleys and gunboats. Into this hornet's nest, De- 
catur steered his little vessel of sixty tons, carrying 

331 



Great Sailors 

four small guns, and having a crew of only seventy 
men. 

The Tripolitans saw the vessel entering the harbor, 
but supposed it to be one of their own until it was 
alongside the Philadelphia. Then there was a cry 
of " Americanos! '' and a rush to quarters, but it was 
too late, for Decatur and his men swarmed up the 
side and over the rail of the Philadelphia, and 
charged the dismayed and panic-stricken Tripolitans. 
There was a short and desperate struggle, and five 
minutes later, the ship was cleared of the enemy. 

It was manifestly impossible to get the Philadel- 
phia out of the harbor, so Decatur gave the order 
to burn her. Combustibles had been prepared in 
advance, and in a moment, flames began to break out 
in all parts of the ship. Then the order was given 
to return to the ketch, the cable was cut, the sweeps 
got out, and the ketch drew rapidly away from the 
burning vessel. The sounds of the melee had awak- 
ened the troops on shore, and, as the harbor was 
lighted by the flames from the Philadelphia, the shore 
batteries opened upon the little vessel, but without 
doing her any serious damage, and Decatur got safely 
out of the harbor and back to the fleet without los- 
ing a man. 

Shortly afterwards his life was saved by one of 
those acts of heroism which stir the blood. In a 
general attack upon the Tripolitan gunboats, De- 
catur laid his ship alongside one of the enemy, grap- 
pled with her and boarded. Decatur was the first 
over the side and a desperate hand-to-hand combat 

335 



A Guide to Biography 

followed. The pirate captain, a gigantic fellow, soon 
met Decatur face to face, and stood on tiptoe to deal 
him a tremendous blow with his scimitar. Decatur 
rushed in under the swinging sword, grappled with 
him, and they fell to the deck together, when an- 
other Tripolitan raised his scimitar to deal the 
American a fatal blow. A young sailor named 
Reuben James, himself with both arms disabled from 
sword cuts, seeing his beloved captain's peril, inter- 
posed his own head beneath the descending sword 
and received a wound which marked him for life. 
An instant later, Decatur's crew rallied to him, killed 
the pirate captain and drove the remainder of his 
crew over the side into the sea. 

At the outbreak of the war of 1812, Decatur was 
given command of the United States, and on the 
morning of October 25, overhauled the British 
frigate Macedonian near the Canary Islands. Sev- 
enteen minutes later, the Macedonian, with a third 
of her crew dead, hauled down her colors. Decatur 
had lost only twelve men killed and wounded, and 
placing a crew aboard his prize, got her safely to 
New York. This victory was soon followed by dis- 
aster, for, securing command of the President, a 
frigate mounting forty-four guns, he attempted to 
get past the British blockade of New York harbor, 
but ran into a squadron of the enemy, and, after a 
running fight lasting thirty hours, was overhauled 
by a superior force and compelled to surrender. De- 
catur was taken captive to Bermuda, but was soon 
parolled, and, after commanding a squadron in the 

336 



Great Sailors 

Mediterranean, built himself a house at Washing- 
ton, expecting to spend the remainder of his days 
there in honorable retirement. 

But it was not to be. In 1816, Decatur, while a 
member of the board of navy commissioners, had 
occasion to censure Commodore James Barron. Bar- 
ron considered himself insulted, and a long cor- 
respondence followed, which finally resulted in Bar- 
ron challenging Decatur to fight a duel. Under the 
code of honor then in vogue, Decatur could do noth- 
ing but accept, and the meeting took place at Bla- 
densburg, Maryland, March 22, 1820. At the word 
" fire,'' Barron fell wounded in the hip, where De- 
catur had said he would shoot him, while Decatur 
himself received a wound in the abdomen from which 
he died that night. He was, all in all, one of the 
most brilliant and efficient men the navy ever 
boasted; and he will be remembered, too, for his 
immorfal toast: "My country: may she be always 
right ; but, right or wrong, my country ! '' 

Closely associated with Decatur in some of his 
exploits was William Bainbridge, as handsome, im- 
petuous and daring a sailor as ever trod a deck. 
Bainbridge, who was five years younger than Deca- 
tur, began his seafaring career at the age of sixteen, 
and three years later was in command of a merchant- 
man. He entered the navy at its reorganization in 
1798, and two years later was appointed to com- 
mand the George Washington, a ship of twenty-eight 
guns. 

Bainbridge's first duty was to carry a tribute of 

337 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

half a million dollars to the Dey of Algiers, ac- 
cording to the arrangement made by the Secretary 
of State which we have already mentioned. The 
errand was a hateful one to Bainbridge, as it would 
have been to any American sailorman; but he was 
in the navy to obey orders, and in September, 1800, 
he reached Algiers and anchored in the harbor and 
delivered the tribute. But when he had done this, 
the Dey sent word that he had a cargo of slaves and 
wild beasts for the Sultan of Turkey at Constan- 
tinople, and that Bainbridge must take them, or his 
ship would be taken from him and he and his crew 
sold into slavery. 

There was nothing to do but consent, since the 
ship was wholly in the Dey^s power, so to Constan- 
tinople Bainbridge sailed her. When a boat was 
sent ashore there to announce her arrival, the Turks 
were greatly astonished, for they had never heard of 
a nation called the United States, and did not know 
that there was a great continent on the other side of 
the world. It makes us feel less self-important, 
sometimes, when we stop to consider that about one 
half the human race, even at the present day, have 
no idea of our existence. 

Well, Bainbridge delivered his cargo, and then 
sailed back to Algiers with orders from the Sultan 
to the Dey. He delivered these to the Dey, and in 
accordance with them, the Dey immediately declared 
war on France, and notified all the French in Algiers 
that if they had not left his dominions within forty- 
eight hours, they would be sold into slavery. There 

338 



Great Sailors 

was no French ship in the harbor, and it looked, for 
a time, as though the French would not be able to 
get away, but as soon as he learned of their predica- 
ment, Bainbridge gathered them together and took 
them over to Spain — an act for which he received 
the personal thanks of Kapoleon Bonaparte. 

Bainbridge was, of course, glad to get away from 
Algiers, but he had by no means seen the last of the 
Barbary pirates. Returning to the United States, he 
was given command of the Philadelphia, and sent 
back to the Mediterranean with Commodore Preble's 
squadron to give the pirates a lesson. The Phila- 
delphia went on ahead to Tripoli and began a vigor- 
ous blockade of that port, but, in chasing a Tripol- 
itan vessel which was trying to enter the harbor, ran 
hard and fast on an uncharted reef, and keeled over 
so far that her guns were useless. The Tripolitans 
were not long in discovering her predicament, 
swarmed out of the harbor in their gunboats, and 
soon had the American vessel at their mercy. 

With what bitterness of spirit Bainbridge hauled 
down his flag may be imagined. He and his men 
were taken ashore and imprisoned and their vessel 
was got off the reef and towed into the harbor. From 
the T\andow of their prison, the Americans could see 
her riding at anchor, flying the flag of Tripoli, and 
the sight did not render their imprisonment more 
pleasant. But one night, they heard shots in the 
harbor, and, looking out, beheld the Philadelphia in 
flames, and the little ketch bearing Decatur and his 
men fading rapidly away through the darkness to- 

339 



A Guide to Biography 

ward the harbor mouth. Six months later, they 
watched the American assault upon the harbor, but 
their hearts fell when the American squadron finally 
gave up the attempt and withdrew. It was not until 
the following year that peace was made, and Bain- 
bridge and his men released, after a captivity of 
nineteen months. ]^ever since that time has the 
United States paid tribute to any nation. 

When the second war with England began. Presi- 
dent Madison and his advisers thought it foolhardy 
to attempt to oppose Great Britain on the ocean, for 
she had the strongest fleet of any nation in the 
world, and so decided to confine the war entirely 
to land. It was Bainbridge who brought about a 
change of this unwise policy by impassioned plead- 
ing, to the everlasting glory of the American navy. 
Hull resigned the Constitution to him, after his vic- 
tory over the Guerriere — it was really for fear that 
Bainbridge would get command of the ship that Hull 
had sailed from Boston without orders — and Bain- 
bridge sailed for the South Atlantic, and captured 
the British frigate Java, after a terrific fight, in 
which he was himself seriously wounded. This was 
his last fight, though the years which followed saw 
him in many important commands. For sheer ro- 
mance and adventure, his career has seldom been 
excelled. 

Another hero of the war of 1812, whose name is 
associated with a deed of imperishable gallantry, was 
James Lawrence. He had entered the navy as mid- 
shipman in 1798, at the age of eighteen, and served 

340 



Great Sailors 

in tlie war against Tripoli, first tinder Hull and tlien 
under Decatur, and accompanied tlie latter on tlie 
expedition whicli destroyed the Pliiladelpliia. But 
the deed by which he is best remembered is his fight 
with the British frigate Shannon. In the spring of 
1813, he was assigned to the command of the frigate 
Chesapeake, a vessel hated by the whole navy be- 
cause of the bad luck which seemed to pursue her. 
Lawrence accepted the command reluctantly, and 
proceeded to Boston, where she was lying, to pre- 
pare her for a voyage. 

A crew was secured with great difficulty, most 
of them being foreigners, and his officers were all 
young and inexperienced. What the crew and 
officers alike needed was a practice cruise to put 
them in shape to meet the enemy, and Lawrence 
knew this better than anybody, but when the British 
frigate Shannon appeared outside the harbor with a 
challenge for a battle, Lawrence, feeling that to 
refuse would be dishonorable, hoisted anchor and 
sailed out to meet her. 

The Shannon was one of the finest frigates in the 
English navy, manned by an experienced crew, and 
commanded by Philip Broke, one of the best officers 
serving under the Union Jack. The ships ranged 
up together and broadsides were delivered with ter- 
rible effect. Lawrence was wounded in the leg, but 
kept the deck. Then the ships fouled, and Lawrence 
called for boarders, but his crew, frightened at the 
desperate nature of the conflict, did not respond, 
and a moment later he fell, shot through the body. 

341 



A Guide to Biography 

As he was borne below, he kept shouting, " Don't 
give up the ship ! Fight her till she strikes or sinks ! 
Don't give up the ship! " his voice growing weaker 
and weaker as his life ebbed away. 

The battle was soon over, after that, for the Brit- 
ish boarded, the Chesapeake's foreign crew threw 
down their arms, and the triumphant enemy hauled 
down the Chesapeake's flag. A few days later, the 
two ships sailed into the harbor of Halifax, Law- 
rence's body, wrapped in his ship's flag, lying in state 
on the quarter-deck. He was buried with military 
honors, first at Halifax, and then at ISTew York, 
where Hull, Stewart and Bainbridge were among 
those who carried the pall. His cry, " Don't give 
up the ship ! " was to be the motto of another battle, 
far to the west, where Great Britain experienced the 
greatest defeat of the war. 

Before describing it, however, let us speak briefly 
of four other valiant men, whose deeds redounded 
to the honor of their country — Edward Preble, 
Charles Stewart, Johnston Blakeley, and Thomas 
Macdonough. It was said of Preble that he had the 
worst temper and the best heart in the world. At 
sixteen years of age he ran away to sea, and two 
years later, he actually saw a sea-serpent, a hun- 
dred and fifty feet in length and as big around as a 
barrel, and got close enough to fire at it. He saw 
service in the Revolution, and in 1803, was ap- 
pointed to command the expedition against the Bar- 
bary corsairs, of which we have already spoken, and 
which resulted in bringing those pirates to their 

342 



Great Sailors 

knees. The trials of that expedition ruined liis 
health, and he survived it but a few years. 

To Charles Stewart belongs the remarkable exploit 
of engaging and capturing two British ships at the 
same time. Enlisting in iTOeS, he was with Preble 
at Tripoli, and was given command of the Constitu- 
tion, after Bainbridge's successful cruise in her, and 
started out in search of adventure on December 17, 
1814. Two months later, off the Madeira Islands 
he sighted two British ships-of-war and at once gave 
chase. He overhauled them at nightfall, and, run- 
ning between them, gave them broadside after broad- 
side, until both struck their colors. They were the 
Cyane and the Levant. Stewart got back to Xew 
York the middle of May to find out that peace had 
been declared over a month before his encounter 
with the British ships. 

He was received with enthusiasm, and " Old Iron- 
sides '' got the reputation of being invincible. Her 
career had, indeed, been remarkable. She had done 
splendid work before Tripoli, escaped twice from 
British squadrons and seven times run the blockade 
through strong British fleets; she had captured three 
frigates and a sloop-of-war, besides many merchant- 
men, and had taken more than eleven hundred pris- 
oners. From all of these engagements she had 
emerged practically unscathed, and in none of them 
had she lost more than nine men. Stewart was the 
last survivor of the great captains of 1812, living 
until 1869, having been carried on the navy list for 
seventy-one years. 

343 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

Johnston Blakeley was a South Carolinian, and 
won renown by a remarkable cruise in the Wasp. 
The Wasp was a stout and speedy sloop, carrying 
twenty-two guns and a crew of one hundred and sev- 
enty men, and in 1814 she sailed from the United 
States, and headed for the English Channel, to carry 
the war into the enemy's country, after the fashion 
of Paul Jones. The Channel, of course, was tra- 
versed constantly by English fleets and squadrons 
and single ships-of-war, and here the Wasp sailed up 
and down, capturing and destroying merchantmen, 
and, by the skill and vigilance of her crew and com- 
mander, escaping an encounter with any frigate or 
ship-of-the-line. 

But one June morning, while chasing two mer- 
chantmen, she sighted the British brig Reindeer, 
and at once prepared for action. The Reindeer 
accepted the challenge, and after some broadsides had 
been exchanged, the ships fouled and the British 
boarded. A desperate struggle followed, in which 
the English commander was killed. Then the board- 
ers were driven back, and the Americans boarded in 
their turn, and in a minute had the Reindeer in their 
possession. Her colors were hauled down, she was 
set afire, and the Wasp continued her cruise. 

Late one September afternoon, British ships of 
war appeared all around her, and selecting one which 
seemed isolated from the others. Captain Blakeley 
decided to try to run alongside and sink her after 
nightfall. She was the eighteen-gim brig Avon, a 
bigger ship than the Wasp, but Blakeley ran along- 

344 



Great Sailors 

side, discliarged Lis broadsides, and soon Lad tLe 
Avon in a sinking condition. She struck her flag, 
but before Blakeley could secure his prize, two other 
British ships came up and he was forced to flee. 

Soon afterwards, he encountered a convoy of ships 
bearing arms and munitions to Wellington's army, 
under the care of a great three-decker. Blakeley 
sailed boldly in, and, evading the three-decker's 
movements, actually cut out and captured one of the 
transports and made his escape. Then she sailed 
for home, and that was the last ever heard of the 
Wasp. She never again appeared, and her fate has 
never been determined. But when she sank, if sink 
she did, there went to the bottom one of the gallant- 
est ships and bravest captains in the American navy. 

All of the battles which we have thus far described 
were fought on salt water, but two great victories 
were won on inland waters, and of one of these 
Thomas Macdonough was the hero. He had entered 
the navy in 1800, at the age of seventeen, served 
before Tripoli, and accompanied Decatur on the ex- 
pedition which burned the Philadelphia. At the 
outbreak of the second war with England, he was 
sent to Lake Champlain, and set about the building 
of a fleet to repel the expected British invasion from 
Canada. The British were also busy at the other 
end of the lake, and on September 9, 1814, Mac- 
donough sailed his fleet of fourteen boats, ten of 
which were small gunboats, and the largest of which, 
the Saratoga, was merely a corvette, into Plattsburg 
Bay, and anchored there. 

345 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

Tlie abdication of Xapoleon had enabled England 
to turn her undivided attention to America, and one 
great force was sent against New Orleans, while 
another was concentrated in Canada, for the purpose 
of invading New York by way of Lake Champlain. 
On this latter enterprise, a force of twelve thousand 
regulars started from Montreal early in August, 
while the British naval force on the lake was 
augmented to nineteen vessels. On September 11, 
this fleet got under way, and, certain of victory, 
sailed into Plattsburg Bay and attacked Macdonough. 
A terrific battle followed, in which the Saratoga had 
every gun on one side disabled and had to wear 
around under fire in order to use those on the other 
side. But three hours later, every British flag had 
been struck, and the land force, seeing their navy 
defeated, retreated hastily to Canada. So riddled 
were both squadrons that in neither of them did a 
mast remain upon which sail could be made. 

But the greatest victory of the war, the one which 
had the most important and far-reaching conse- 
quences, had been won a year before, far to the 
west, on the blue waters of Lake Erie, by Oliver 
Hazard Perry, at that time only twenty-eight years 
of age. Perry came of a seafaring stock, for his 
father was a captain in the navy, and the boy's first 
voyage was made with him in 1799. At the out- 
break of the war of 1812, he was in command of a 
division of gunboats at Newport, but finding that, 
owing to the British blockade, there was little chance 
of his seeing active service in that position, he asked 

346 



Great Sailors 

to be sent to the Great Lakes, whose possession we 
were preparing to dispute with England. 

The importance of this mission can hardly be over- 
estimated. By the capture of Detroit, earlier in the 
war, the English had obtained undisputed control of 
Lake Erie, and w^ere in position to carry out their 
plan of extending the Dominion of Canada along the 
Ohio and Mississippi rivers down to the Gulf, and so 
shutting in the United States upon the West. To 
Perry was assigned the task of stopping this project, 
and of regaining control of the lake. 

He arrived at Lake Erie in the spring of 1813, and 
proceeded at once to build the fleet which was to 
sail under the Stars and Stripes. He showed the 
utmost skill and energy in doing this, and by the 
middle of July, in spite of many difficulties, had 
nine vessels ready to meet the enemy — two brigs and 
two gunboats which he had built, and five small boats 
which were brought up from the ISTiagara river. On 
the third of August, he sailed out to meet the Brit- 
ish, his ships being manned by a motley crew of 
" blacks, soldiers, and boys." 

The flagship had been named the Lawrence, after 
the heroic commander of the Chesapeake. Luckily 
the English were not ready for battle, and Perry had 
a month in which to drill his men before the enemy 
sailed out to meet him. At last, on the morning of 
Saturday, September 10, 1813, the British fleet was 
seen approaching, and Perry formed his ships in 
line of battle. 

The British squadron consisted of six vessels, 

347 



A Guide to Biography 

mounting 63 guns, and manned by 502 men. The 
American ships mounted 54 guns, with 490 men. 
Although of smaller total weight than the American 
guns, the British guns were longer and would carry 
farther, and so were much more effective. The 
British crews, too, were better disciplined, a large 
number of the men being from the royal navy, and 
the squadron was commanded by Robert Heriot, a 
man of much experience, who had fought under 
]^elson at Trafalgar. 

The American shore was lined with an anxious 
crowd, who appreciated the great issues which hung 
upon the battle. Perry, calling his men aft, pro- 
duced a blue banner bearing in white letters the last 
words of the man after whom the Lawrence was 
named : " Don't give up the ship ! " 

" Shall I hoist it, boys? '^ he asked. 

"Aye, aye, sir! " they shouted, and the bunting 
was run up to the main-royal masthead. Then a 
hush fell upon the water as the two fleets drew to- 
gether. A few minutes before noon the engagement 
began. Perry heading straight for the flagship of the 
enemy, and drawing the fire of practically the whole 
British squadron by running ahead of the other 
ships, which, owing to the light breeze, could not 
get within range. For two hours, he fought against 
these hopeless odds, and almost without support, un- 
til his ship was reduced to a wreck and only one of 
her guns could be worked, while of her crew of 
103, only twenty were left on their feet. Every 
nook and corner of the brig was occupied by some 

348 



Great Sailors 

wounded and dying wretch seeking vainly to find 
shelter from the British fire. Even the cockpit, 
where the wounded were carried for treatment, was 
not safe, for some of the men were killed while under 
the surgeon's hands. !No fewer than six cannon balls 
passed through the cockpit, while two went through 
the magazine, which, by some miracle, did not ex- 
plode. The ship was so disabled, at last, that it 
drifted out of action, and Perry, taking his pennant 
and the blue flag bearing the words " Don't give up 
the ship! " under his arm, got into a boat with four 
seamen, and started for the Niagara, his other brig. 

The British saw the little boat dancing over the 
waves, and after a moment of dazed astonishment at 
a manoeuvre unheard of in naval warfare and daring 
almost to madness, concentrated their fire on it. One 
cannon ball penetrated the boat, but Perry, stripping 
off his coat, stuffed it into the hole and so kept the 
boat afloat until the Niagara was reached. Clamber- 
ing on board, Perry ran up his flags, reformed his 
line, closed with the enemy, raked them, engaged 
them at close quarters, where their long guns gave 
them no advantage, and conducted an onslaught so 
terrific that, twenty minutes later, the entire British 
squadron had hauled down their flags. 

Perry at once rowed back to the Lawrence, and 
upon her splintered and bloodstained deck, received 
the surrender of the British officers. Then, using his 
cap for a desk, he wrote with a pencil on the back 
of an old letter the famous message announcing the 
victory: "We have met the enemy and they are 

349 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

ours — two sliips, two brigs, two scliooners and one 
sloop." More than that was ours, for the victory, 
and the prompt advance of General Harrison which 
followed it, compelled the British to evacuate Detroit 
and Michigan, and to abandon forever the attempt 
to annex the West to Canada. Half a century later, 
when the great Erie canal was opened, the guns of 
Perry's fleet, placed at ten-mile intervals along its 
banks, announced the departure of the first fleet of 
boats from Buffalo, carrying the news to 'New York 
City, a distance of 360 miles, in an hour and twenty 
minutes. 

Perry lived only six years longer, dying while still 
a young man, in the saddest possible manner. In 
June, 1819, he was given command of a squadron 
designed to protect American trade in South Amer- 
ican waters, and while ascending the Orinoco, con- 
tracted the yellow fever, and died a few days later. 
He was buried at Trinidad, but some years after- 
wards, a ship-of-war brought him home, and he 
sleeps at Newport, Rhode Island, near the spot where 
he was born. 

So ends the story of that group of naval com- 
manders, who dealt so surprising and terrific a blow 
at the tradition of English supremacy on the ocean. 

The brother of the victor of Lake Erie, Matthew 
Calbraith Perry, must also be mentioned here, for 
his was a unique achievement — the peaceful conquest 
of a great Eastern empire. Born in 1794, and 
educated in the best traditions of the navy, he was 

350 



Great Sailors 

selected to command the expedition which, in 1853, 
was ordered to visit Japan, that strange nation of the 
Orient w^hich, up to that time, had kept her ports 
closed to foreign commerce. Perry's conduct of this 
delicate mission was notable in the extreme, and its 
result was the signing of a treaty between Japan and 
the United States which has long been regarded as 
one of the greatest diplomatic triumphs of the age. 

In the spring of 1861, a captain of the United 
States navy w^as living at E'orfolk, Ya., his home, the 
home of his wife's family, and the home of his 
closest friends. Excitement ran high, for it was as 
yet an open question whether or not the great state 
of Virginia would join her sisters farther south and 
renounce her allegiance to the Union. It was a time 
of searching of hearts, and this man of sixty years 
was brought face to face with the bitterest moment 
of his life. He must choose between his country and 
his state; between his flag and the love and respect of 
his relatives and friends. 

In the end, the flag won. It was the flag he had 
taken his boyish oath to honor; on more than one 
occasion, he had seen the haughtiest colors on the 
ocean bow with respect before it; he had seen 
men, writhing in the agony of death, expend their 
last breath to defend it. It had wrapped itself about 
his heart, and meant more to him than home or 
friends or kindred. So the flag won. 

On the seventeenth day of April, 1861, Virginia 
seceded from the Union. The day following, our 

351 



A Guide to Biography 

gray-haired captain, expressing the opinion that 
secession was not the will of the majority of the 
people, but that the state had been dragooned out 
of the Union by a coterie of politicians, was told 
that he could no longer live in Norfolk. 

" Very well," he answered, " I can live somewhere 
else." 

He went home and told his wife that the time 
had come when she must choose whether she would 
remain with her own kinsfolk or follow him. Her 
choice w^as made on the instant, and within two 
hours, David Glasgow Farragut, his wife and their 
only son, were on a steamer headed for the North. 
A few days later, he offered his services to the Union. 

Before going forward with him upon his great 
career, let us cast a glance over his boyhood — such 
a boyhood as falls to the lot of not one in a million. 
Born in 1801, of a father who had served in the 
Bevolution and who was afterwards to become a 
friend and companion of Andrew Jackson, his child- 
hood was passed amid the dangers and alarms of the 
Tennessee frontier. In 1808 occurred the incident 
which paved the way for his entrance into the navy. 
"While fishing on Lake Pontchartrain, his father fell 
in with a boat in which was lying an old man pros- 
trated by the heat of the sun. Farragut took him 
at once to his own home, where he was tenderly cared 
for, but he died a few days later. The sufferer was 
David Porter, father of Captaiu Porter of the Essex, 
at that time in charge of the naval station at New 
Orleans. 

352 



Great Sailors 

Captain Porter was informed of the accident to 
his father, and hastened to the home of the Far- 
raguts. He felt deeply their kindness, and as some 
slight return, offered to adopt one of the Farragut 
children, take him !N^orth with him, and do what he 
could for his advancement. Young David promptly 
said that he would go, the arrangements were con- 
cluded, and the boy of seven accompanied his new 
protector to Washington. He spent two years at 
school there, and then, on December 17, 1810, at the 
age of nine, received an appointment as midshipman 
in the United States navy. Two years later, he 
accompanied Porter in the Essex on that memorable 
trip around Cape Horn. 

Porter took so many prizes in the South Pacific 
that his supply of older officers ran out, and twelve- 
year old David Farragut was appointed prize-master 
of one of them, with orders to take her to Valparaiso. 
"When Farragut gave his first order, her skipper, a 
hot-tempered old sea-dog, flew into a rage, and de- 
claring that he had " no idea of trusting himself with 
a blamed nutshell," rushed below for his pistols. 
The twelve-year-old commander shouted after him 
that, if he came on deck again, he would be thrown 
overboard, and thenceforth was master of the ship. 
He was back on the Essex again when she was at- 
tacked in Valparaiso harbor by a British squadron, 
and got his baptism of fire in one of the hardest- 
fought naval battles in history. 

From that time until the outbreak of the Civil 
"War, his life was spent in the most active service, and 

353 



A Guide to Biography 

lie rose to tlie rank of captain. As has been seen, lie 
cast in his lot with the North, and asked for active 
duty at once, but it was not until eight months later 
that the summons came. When it did come, it was 
of a nature to fill him with the most unbounded 
enthusiasm. The national government had deter- 
mined to attempt to send a fleet past the formidable 
forts at the mouth of the Mississippi, for the purpose 
of capturing New Orleans. Farragut was sent for, 
shown the list of vessels which were preparing for 
the expedition, and asked if he thought it could suc- 
ceed. He answered that he would undertake to do 
it with two-thirds the number, and when he was told 
that he was to command the expedition, his delight 
knew no bounds. He felt that his chance had come. 
On the second of February, 1862, he sailed out of 
Hampton Koads with a squadron of seventeen vessels, 
and turned his prow to the south. 

The task which had been set him was one to give 
the stoutest heart pause. Twenty miles above the 
mouth of the Mississippi were two formidable forts 
and a number of water batteries, with combined 
armaments greatly superior to those of Farragut's 
fleet. A great barrier of logs stretched across the 
river, while farther up lay a Confederate fleet of 
fifteen vessels, one of which was an ironclad ram. 
A strong force of Confederate sharpshooters was sta- 
tioned along either bank, and a number of fire-rafts 
were ready to be lighted and sent down against the 
Union fleet. It was against these obstacles that Far- 
ragut, after a week of preliminary attack, started 

354 



Great Sailors 

up the river in his wooden vessels at three o'clock 
in the morning of April 24, 1862. 

As soon as the Confederates descried the advancing 
fleet, they lighted great fires along the banks and 
opened a terrific cannonade. Blazing fire-rafts threw 
a lurid glare against the sky. The fleet, pausing a 
few minutes to discharge their broadsides into the 
forts, steamed on up the river; Farragut's flagship 
grounded under the guns of Fort St. Philip, and a 
fireship, blazing a hundred feet in the air, floated 
against her and set her on fire, but the flames were ex- 
tinguished, the flagship backed off, and headed again 
up the stream. Before the coming of dawn, the 
entire fleet, with the exception of three small boats, 
had passed the forts and were grappling with the Con- 
federate squadron above. Of this, short work was 
made. Some of the enemy's vessels were driven 
ashore, some were run down, others were riddled 
with shot — and the proudest city of the South lay 
at Farragut's mercy. 

On the first day of May, the United States troops 
under General Butler, marched into the city, and 
Farragut, glad to be relieved of an unpleasant task, 
proceeded up the river, ran by the batteries at Yicks- 
burg, assisted at the reduction of Port Hudson, and 
finally sailed for New York in his flagship, the Hart- 
ford, arriving there in August, 1863. He had 
already been commissioned rear-admiral, and he was 
given a most enthusiastic reception, for his passage of 
the Mississippi was recognized as an extraordinary 
feat. An examination of his ship showed that she 

355 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

tad been struck 240 times by shot and shell in her 
nineteen montlis of service. 

Immediately after the surrender of New Orleans, 
Farragut had desired to proceed against the port of 
Mobile, Alabama, which was so strongly fortified that 
all attempts to close it had been in vain, and which 
was the only important port left open to the Con- 
federates. But the government decided that Mobile 
could wait a while, and sent him, instead, to open 
the Mississippi. That task accomplished, the time 
had come for him to attempt the greatest of his 
career — greater, even, than his capture of New Or- 
leans, and much more hazardous. In the spring of 
1864, he was in the Gulf, preparing for the great 
enterprise. 

Mobile harbor was defended by works so strong 
and well-placed that it was considered well-nigh im- 
pregnable. The Confederates had realized the im- 
portance of keeping this, their last port, open, so that 
they could communicate with the outer world, and 
had spared no pains to render it so strong that they 
believed no attack could subdue it. Two great forts, 
armed with heavy and effective artillery, guarded 
the entrance; the winding channel was filled with 
torpedoes, and in the inner harbor was a fleet of 
gunboats, and, most powerful of all, the big, iron- 
clad ram, Tennessee. In charge of the Tennessee 
was the same man who had guided the Merri- 
mac on her fatal visit to Hampton Roads, Franklin 
Buchanan, but the Tennessee was a much more pow- 
erful vessel than the Merrimac had ever been, and 

356 



Great Sailors 

it was thought that nothing afloat could stand against 
her. 

It was this position, then, which, at daybreak of 
August 5, 1864, Farragut sailed in to assault. His 
fleet consisted of four ironclad monitors, and fourteen 
wooden vessels, and his preparations were made most 
carefully, for he fully realized the gravity of the 
task before him. He himself was in his old flagship, 
the Hartford, and mounting into the rigging to be 
above the smoke, he was lashed fast there, so that 
he would not fall to the deck, in case a bullet struck 
him. The thought of that brave old leader taking 
that exposed position so that he might handle his 
fleet more ably will always be a thrilling one — 
and the event proved how wise he was in choos- 
ing it. 

The word was given, and, at half past six in the 
morning, the monitors took their stations, while the 
wooden ships formed in column, the plan being for 
the monitors, with their iron sides, to steam in be- 
tween the wooden ships and the forts, and so protect 
them as much as possible. The light vessels were 
lashed each to the left of one of the heavier ones, 
so that each pair of ships was given a double chance 
to escape, should one be rendered helpless by a shot 
in the boiler, or in some other vital portion of her 
machinery. The Brooklyn was at the head of the 
column, while the Hartford came second, and the 
others followed. In this order, the fleet advanced 
to the attack. 

There was an unwonted stillness on the ships as 

357 



A Guide to Biograplij 

tliey swung In towards tlie harbor moutli, for every 
man felt within him a vague unrest caused by one 
awful and mysterious peril, the torpedoes. For the 
forts, the gunboats, even the great ironclad, the men 
cared nothing — they had met such perils before — 
but lurking beneath the water was a horror not to be 
guarded against. They knew that these deadly mines 
were scattered along the channel through which they 
must make their way, and that any moment might 
be the end of some proud vessel. 

The ships were all in fighting trim, with spars 
housed and canvas furled, and decks spread with 
sawdust so that they would not grow slippery with 
the blood which was soon to flow. As the fleet came 
within range of the forts, a terrific cannonade be- 
gan, in which the Confederate ships, stationed just 
inside the harbor, soon joined. One of them was the 
great ram, Tennessee, and the commander of the 
leading monitor, the Tecumseh, noted her and deter- 
mined to give her battle. So he swung his ship 
toward her and ordered full steam ahead; but an 
instant later, there came a sudden dull roar, an up- 
lifting of the water, the boat quivered from stem 
to stem, and then plunged, bow first, beneath the 
waves. 

Farragut, from his lofty station, saw the Tecumseh 
disappear, and then saw the Brooklyn, the ship ahead 
of him in the battle line, stop and begin to back. 
It was an awful moment — the crisis of the fight and 
of Farragut's career as well. The ships were halted 
in a narrow channel, right beneath the forts; a few 

358 



Ureat Sailors 

moments' delay meant tliat they would be blown out 
of the water. 

" What's the matter there? " he roared. 

" Torpedoes ! " came the cry from the Brooklyn's 
deck, for her captain had perceived a line of little 
buoys stretching right across her path. 

" Damn the torpedoes ! " shouted the admiral. 
" Go ahead, Captain Drayton," he continued, address- 
ing his own captain. " Four bells ! " and the Hart- 
ford, swinging aside, cleared the Brooklyn and took 
the lead. 

On went the flagship across the line of torpedoes, 
which could be heard knocking against her bottom 
as she passed, but not one of them exploded, and a 
moment later, one of the most daring feats in naval 
history had been accompHshed. Farragut had seen, 
instantly, that the risk must be taken, and so he 
took it. 

The remainder of the fleet followed the flagship, 
the forts were passed, and the battle virtually won. 
The Confederate fleet, and especially the great ram, 
was still to be reckoned with, but before proceeding 
to that portion of the task, Farragut steamed up the 
harbor and served breakfast to his men. Just as 
this was finished, the Tennessee attacked, and put 
up a desperate fight, but finally became unmanage- 
able and was forced to surrender. 

So ended the battle of Mobile Bay. It left Farra- 
gut's fame secure as one of the greatest sea-captains 
of all time ; great in daring, in skill, in foresight, 
and with a coolness and presence of mind which no 

359 



A Guide to Biography 

peril could shake. Congress created for him the 
grade of admiral, hefore unknown in the United 
States navy, and the whole country joined in honor- 
ing him. 

Swinging to and fro with the ebb and flow of the 
tide at the entrance of Mobile Bay, is a buoy which 
marks the spot of a deed of purest heroism. A few 
fathoms below that buoy lies the monitor Tecumseh, 
sunk by a torpedo at the beginning of the battle, as 
we have seen, and the buoy commemorates, not the 
sinking of the ship, but the self-sacrifice of her com- 
mander, Tunis Augustus Craven. 

Craven had entered the navy at the age of six- 
teen and had seen much service and distinguished 
himself in many ways before he was given com- 
mand of the Tecumseh and ordered to join Farragut's 
squadron. On the morning of the attack, he was 
given the post of honor at the head of the column, 
and determined to come to close quarters with the 
Tennessee, if he could. But fate intervened, when 
his quarry was almost within reach. Craven had 
stationed himself in the little pilot-house beside the 
pilot, the better to direct the movements of his ship, 
and when he and the pilot felt that sudden shock 
and saw the Tecumseh sinking, both of them sprang 
for the narrow opening leading from the pilot-house 
to the turret chamber below. They reached the 
opening at the same instant; it was so small that 
only one could pass at a time, and Craven, with a 
greatness of soul found only in heroes, drew back, 
saying quietly, " After you, pilot.'' 

360 



Great Sailors 

" There was notliing after me," said the pilot after- 
wards, "for when I reached the last round of the 
ladder, the vessel seemed to drop from under me." 

At the outbreak of the Civil War, the commerce 
of the United States was the next to the largest in 
the world. The l^orth destroyed southern commerce 
by capturing or blockading southern ports, while the 
South retaliated by fitting out a large number of 
commerce-destroyers, to range the seas and take what 
prizes they could — a plan which had been adopted 
by America in both wars with England, and which 
IS the only resource of a power whose navy is greatly 
inferior to that of its antagonist. 

The bright particular star of the Confederate ser- 
vice was Raphael Semmes, who had been trained in 
the United States navy, and who, first in the Sumter 
and afterwards in the Alabama, captured a total of 
seventy-seven prizes, nearly all of which he destroyed. 
To his capture, the United States devoted some of 
its best ships, but it was not until the summer of 
1864, that he was finally cornered. 

On Sunday, June 12, 1864, the United States 
sloop-of-war Kearsarge lay at anchor off the sleepy 
town of Flushing, Holland. Her commander, John 
Ancrum Winslow, had served in the navy of the 
United States for thirty-seven years, and had done 
good work off Vera Cruz in the war with Mexico, 
but the crowning achievement of his life was at hand. 
As his ship lay swinging idly at her anchor, a boat 
put off to her, a messenger jumped aboard, and three 

361 



A Guide to Biograplij 

minutes later a gun was fired, recalling instantly 
every member of the ship's company ashore. The 
message was from our minister to France and stated 
that the long-sought Alabama had arrived at Cher- 
bourg. For nearly two years, Winslow had been 
searching for that scourge of American shipping, 
but Semmes had always eluded him, so it may well 
be believed that "Winslow lost no time in getting 
under way. On Tuesday morning, he reached Cher- 
bourg, and breathed a great sigh of relief as he saw, 
beyond the breakwater, the flag of the Alabama. He 
took his station off the port, and kept a close lookout 
for fear his enemy would again elude him. But the 
precaution was unnecessary, for Semmes had decided 
to offer battle. 

Four days passed, however, with the Kearsarge 
keeping grim guard. Then, on Sunday morning, 
June 19, as the crew of the Kearsarge was at 
divine service, the officer of the deck reported a 
steamer at the harbor-mouth. A moment later, 
the lookout shouted, " She's coming, and heading 
straight for us! " Captain Winslow, putting aside 
his prayer-book, seized the trumpet, ordered the 
decks cleared for action, and put his ship about and 
bore down on the Alabama. 

The two vessels were remarkably well-matched, 
but the engagement was decisive evidence of the 
superior qualities of northern marksmanship. It 
was, in fact, an exhibition of that magnificent gun- 
nery which was so evident in the war of 1812, 
and which was to be shown again in the war with 

363 



Great Sailors 

Spain. ISTearly all of the 173 shots fired by the 
Kearsarge took effect, while of the 370 fired by 
the Alabama, only 28 reached their target. As a 
result, at the end of an hour and a half, the Alabama 
was sinking, while the Kearsarge was practically 
uninjured and had lost only three men. Hauling 
down her flag, the Alabama tried to run in shore, 
but suddenly, settling by the stern, lifted her bow 
high in the air and plunged to the bottom of the 
sea. So ended the career of the Alabama. Winslow 
received the usual rewards of promotion and the 
thanks of Congress, and passed the remainder of his 
life unadventurously in the navy service. 

One other battle remains to be recorded — in some 
respects the most important in history, because it 
revolutionized the construction of battleships, and 
suddenly rendered all the existing navies of the world 
practically useless. 

On the eighth day of March, 1862, a powerful 
squadron of Union vessels lay at anchor in Hampton 
Eoads, consisting of the Congress, the Cumberland, 
the St. Lawrence, the Eoanoke, and the Minnesota. 
It was a beautiful spring morning, and the tall ships 
rocked lazily at their anchors, while their crews oc- 
cupied themselves with routine duties. Shortly be- 
fore noon, a strange object was seen approaching 
down the Elizabeth river. To the Union officers, it 
looked like the roof of a large barn belching forth 
smoke. In reality, it was the Confederate ironclad, 
Merrimac, under command of Captain Franklin 
Buchanan, 

363 



A Guide to Biography 

Buchanan had, in his day, been one of the most 
distinguished officers in the United States navy. He 
had entered the service in 1815, as midshipman, and 
won rapid promotion. In 1845, he was selected by 
the secretary of the navy to organize the naval acad- 
emy at Annapolis, and was its first commandant. 
He commanded the Germantown at the capture of 
Vera Cruz, and the Susquehanna, the flagship of 
Commodore Perry^s famous expedition to Japan. At 
the outbreak of the Civil "War, he was commandant 
of the Washington navy-yard, and, being himself 
a Baltimore man, resigned from the service after 
the attack made in Baltimore on the Massachusetts 
troops passing through there. Finding that his state 
did not secede, he withdrew his resignation and asked 
to be restored, but for some reason, the secretary of 
the navy, Gideon Welles, refused this request, and 
Buchanan was fairly driven into the enemy's service. 

The Confederacy was glad to get him, gave him 
the rank of captain and put him in charge of the 
work at the l^orfolk, Virginia, navy-yard. The most 
important business going forward there was the re- 
construction of the United States frigate, Merrimac. 
This consisted in building above her berth-deck slop- 
ing bulwarks seven feet high, covered with four 
inches of iron, and pierced for ten guns. To her 
bow, about two feet under water, a cast-iron ram 
was attached, and on the eighth of Marcli, she 
cast loose from her moorings and started down the 
river. She was scarcely complete, her crew had 
never been drilled, she had never fired a gun, nor 

364 



Great Sailors 

had her engines made a single revolution, while the 
ship itself was merely a bold experiment, which had 
never made a trial trip. Yet Buchanan, on reach- 
ing Hampton Koads, headed straight for the Union 
fleet. 

There, as soon as the identity of the stranger was 
discovered, hurried preparations for battle were 
made. Decks were cleared, magazines opened, and 
guns loaded, and as soon as the Merrimac was in 
range, the Union ships and shore batteries opened 
upon her, but such projectiles as struck her, glanced 
harmlessly from her iron mail. Not until she was 
quite near the Cumberland did the Merrimac return 
the fire. Then she opened her bow-port and sent 
a seven-inch shell through the Cumberland's quarter. 
The Cumberland answered with a broadside which 
would have blown any wooden vessel out of the 
water, but which affected the Merrimac not at all. 
Buchanan had determined to test the power of his 
ram, and keeping on at full speed, crashed into the 
Cumberland's side. Then he backed out, leaving a 
yawning chasm, through which the water poured into 
the doomed ship. She settled rapidly and sank 
with a roar, her crew firing her guns to the last 
moment. 

The Merrimac then turned her attention to the 
Congress, with such deadly effect that that vessel 
was forced to surrender after an hour's fighting, in 
which she was repeatedly hulled and set on fire. 
Most of her crew escaped to the shore, and the Con- 
federates completed her destruction by firing hot 

365 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

sliot into her. Evening was at hand by this time, 
and the Merrimac withdrew, intending to destroy 
the other ships in the harbor next morning. 

So ended the most disastrous day in the history 
of the United States navy. Two ships were lost, and 
over three hundred men killed or wounded. On the 
Merrimac, two had been killed and eight w^ounded, 
but the vessel herself, though she had been the target 
for more than a hundred heavy guns, was practically 
uninjured and as dangerous as ever. 

Among the wounded was Captain Buchanan, who 
was forced to relinquish the command of the Mer- 
rimac. For his gallantry, he was thanked by the 
Confederate Congress, and promoted to full admiral 
and senior officer of the Confederate navy. As soon 
as he recovered from his wound, he was placed in 
charge of the naval defenses of Mobile, Alabama, and 
there superintended the construction of the ram Ten- 
nessee, which he commanded during the action with 
Farragut two years later. His handling of the vessel 
was daring almost to madness, but she became dis- 
abled and was forced to surrender. Buchanan was 
taken prisoner, and never again took part in any 
naval action. 

Let us return to Hampton Roads. 

The news of the disaster to the Union fleet spread 
gloom and consternation throughout the North, and 
corresponding rejoicing throughout the South. The 
remaining ships in Hampton Roads plainly lay at 
the Merrimac's mercy, and after they had been de- 
stroyed, there was nothing to prevent her steaming 

366 



Great Sailors 

up the Potomac and attacking Wasliington. It 
seemed as if nothing but a miracle could save the 
country from awful disaster. 

And that miracle was at hand. 

Among the coincidences of history, none is more 
remarkable than the arrival at Hampton Eoads on 
the night of March 8, 1862, of the strange and freak- 
ish-looking craft known as the Monitor. Proposed 
to the ^avy Department in the preceding fall by 
John Ericsson, in spite of sneers and doubts, a con- 
tract was given him in October to construct a vessel 
after his design. The form of the Monitor is too 
well known to need description — "a cheese-box on 
a raft," the name given her in derision, describes 
her as well as anything. She was launched on the 
last day of January, and three weeks later was 
handed over to the Government, but it was not until 
the fourth of March that her guns were mounted, 
two powerful rifled cannon. At the request of Erics- 
son, she was named the Monitor, and this name came 
afterwards to be adopted to describe the class of ships 
of which she was the first. So dangerous was service 
in her considered, that volunteers were called for, 
and Lieutenant John Lorimer "Worden was given 
command of her. 

Worden had entered the navy twenty-seven years 
before, and at the opening of the Civil War, had 
delivered the orders from the secretary of the navy 
which saved Port Pickens, in the harbor of Pensa- 
cola, to the Union. Attempting to return l^orth 
overland, he was arrested and held as a prisoner 

367 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

seven months, being exchanged just in time to enable 
him to procure command of the Monitor. Eumors 
of the construction of the Merrimac had reached 
the I^orth, and two days after her guns were aboard, 
the Monitor left New York harbor for Hampton 
Roads. Just after she passed Sandy Hook, orders 
recalling her were received there, fortunately too 
late to be delivered. By such slight threads do the 
events of history depend. 

Meanwhile, Captain Worden was making such 
progress southward as he could with his unwieldy 
and dangerous craft, which had been designed only 
for the smooth waters of rivers and harbors and which 
was wholly unable to cope with the boisterous At- 
lantic. There was a brisk wind, and the vessel was 
soon in imminent danger of foundering. The waves 
broke over her smoke-stack and poured down into 
her fires, so that steam could not be kept up; the 
blowers which ventilated the ship would not work, 
and she became filled with gas which rendered some 
of her crew unconscious. Undoubtedly she would 
have gone to the bottom very shortly had not the 
wind moderated. Even then, it was almost a miracle 
that she should win through, but win through she 
did, and at four o'clock on the afternoon of Satur- 
day, March 8, as she was passing Cape Henry, Cap- 
tain Worden heard the distant booming of guns. As 
darkness came, he saw far ahead the glare of the 
burning Congress. 

About midnight, the little vessel crept up beside 
the Minnesota and anchored. Her crew were com- 

368 



Great Sailors 

pletely exhausted. For fifty hours, they had fought 
to keep their ship afloat, and on the morrow they 
must be prepared to meet a formidable foe. All that 
night they worked with their vessel, making such 
repairs as they could. At eight o'clock next morn- 
ing, the Merrimac appeared, and the Monitor started 
to meet her. 

Amazed at sight of what appeared to be an iron 
turret sliding over the water toward him, the com- 
mander of the Merrimac swung toward this tiny 
antagonist, intending to destroy her before proceed- 
ing to the work in hand. Captain Worden had 
taken his station in the pilot-house, and reserved 
his fire until within short range. Then, slowly cir- 
cling about his unwieldy foe, he fired shot after shot, 
which, while they did not disable her, prevented her 
from destroying the Union ships in the harbor. 
Finding the Monitor apparently invulnerable, and 
with her machinery giving trouble, the Merrimac at 
last withdrew to ^Norfolk. 

That the battle was a victory for the Monitor 
cannot be questioned; she had prevented the destruc- 
tion of the Union ships, and this she continued to 
do, until, in the following May, the Confederates, 
finding themselves compelled to abandon I^orfolk, 
set the Merrimac on fire and blew her up. Six 
months later, the Monitor met a tragic fate, founder- 
ing in a storm off Cape Hatteras, a portion of her 
crew going down with her. 

Honors were showered upon Worden for his 
gallant work. He was given command of the monitor 

369 



A Guide to Biography 

Montauk, and later on destroyed the Confederate 
privateer Nashville. After the war, he was promoted 
to rear-admiral, and remained in the service until 
1886. 

There were others in the war whose deeds brought 
glory to themselves and to the navy — Lieutenant 
"William B. Gushing, who destroyed the Confederate 
ram Albemarle in Plymouth harbor, a deed com- 
parable with the burning of the Philadelphia early 
in the century; David Dixon Porter, whose work on 
the Mississippi was second only to Farragut's, who 
four times received the thanks of Congress, and who, 
in the end, became admiral of the navy; Charles 
Stuart Boggs, who, in the sloop-of-war Yaruna, sank 
five Confederate vessels in the river below 'New 
Orleans, before he was himself sunk — but none of 
them, and, indeed, none of those whose exploits we 
have given, measured up to the stature of Farragut, 
one of the greatest commanders of all time, and, all 
things considered, the very greatest in the history 
of America. 

Thirty years and more passed after that epoch- 
making contest between the Monitor and the Mer- 
rimac before the world witnessed another battle to 
the death between ironclads. Theoretically, wood 
had long since been displaced by iron, iron by steel, 
and steel by specially-forged armor-plate, battleship 
designers struggling always to build a vessel which 
could withstand modern projectiles. But as to the 
actual results in warfare, there was nothing but 

370 



Great Sailors 

theory to go upon until that first day of May, 1898, 
when George Dewey steamed into the harbor of 
Manila, at the head of his squadron, and opened 
fire upon the Spanish fleet. 

Dewey had received his training under the best 
of masters, Farragut. Graduating from Annapolis 
in 1858, he served as lieutenant on the Mississippi, 
when that vessel, as part of Farragut's fleet, ran past 
the forts below ISTew Orleans. A short time later, in 
trying to pass the Confederate batteries at Port Hud- 
son, the Mississippi ran hard and fast aground. Half 
an hour was spent, under a terrific fire, in trying to 
get her off; then Dewey, after spiking her guns, 
assisted in scuttling her and escaped with her captain 
in a small boat. He saw other active service, and got 
his first command in 1870. He was commissioned 
commodore in 1896, and on January 1, 1898, took 
command of the Asiatic squadron. 

Few people in the world beside himself suspected, 
even in the dimmest manner, the task which lay 
before him; but with a rare sagacity, he had foreseen 
that, in the event of war with Spain, the far East 
would be the scene of operations of the first impor- 
tance. He thereupon applied for the command of 
the Asiatic squadron, and his application was granted. 
Dewey proceeded immediately to Hong Kong, and 
began to concentrate his forces there and to get them 
into first-class condition. He spent much of his time 
studying the charts of the Pacific, and his officers 
noticed that the maps of the Philippine Islands soon 
became worn and marked. On Tuesday, ilpril 26, 

371 



A Guide to Biography 

came the explanation of all this in a cablegram stat- 
ing that war had been declared between the United 
States and Spain, and ordering Dewey to proceed at 
once to the Philippine Islands and capture or destroy 
the Spanish fleet which was stationed there. 

Early the next afternoon, the squadron started 
on its six hundred mile journey. What lay at 
the end of it, no one on the fleet knew. Of the 
Spanish force, Dewey knew only that twenty-three 
Spanish war vessels were somewhere in the Philip- 
pines; he knew, too, that they were probably at 
Manila, and that the defenses of the harbor were 
of the strongest description. But he remembered one 
of Farragut's sayings, " The closer you get to your 
enemy, the harder you can strike," and he lost no 
time in getting under way. 

Dewey's squadron consisted of seven vessels, of 
which one was a revenue cutter, and two colliers. 
He was many thousands of miles from the nearest 
base of supplies and to fail would mean that he 
would have to surrender. So, on that momentous 
voyage, he drilled and drilled his men, until their 
discipline was perfect. On April 30, land was 
sighted, and precautions were redoubled, since the 
enemy might be encountered at any moment. Care- 
ful search failed to reveal the Spaniards in Subig 
Bay, and at six o'clock in the evening, Dewey an- 
nounced to his ofiicers that he had determined to 
force Manila Bay that night. At nine o'clock the 
fleet was off the bay, all lights were extinguished 
save one at the stern of each ship to serve as a guide 

372 




DEWEY 



Great Sailors 

for the one following, and even that light was care- 
fully screened on both sides so that it could not be 
seen from the shore. Then the fleet headed for the 
harbor mouth. 

What the defenses of the channel were, no one 
knew. It Avas reported to be full of torpedoes. But 
perhaps Dewey remembered Farragut at Mobile Bay. 
At any rate, he did not hesitate, but kept straight 
on, and the fleet had almost passed the harbor mouth, 
before its presence was discovered. Then the shore 
batteries opened, but without effect, and the entire 
squadron passed safely into the harbor. Then fol- 
lowed long hours of waiting for the dawn, and at 
five o'clock came the signal, " Prepare for action," 
for the Spanish fleet had been sighted at anchor far 
down the harbor. 

Fifteen minutes later, the Spaniards opened fire, 
but Dewey went silently on toward his goal. Sud- 
denly, a short distance away, there was a dull ex- 
plosion, and a great mass of water and mud sprang 
into the air. A mine had been exploded; the fieet 
had entered the mine fields. Now, if ever, it would 
be blown into eternity, but there was no pause in 
the progress of that silent line of battle. From the 
bridge of the Olympia, the most exposed position in 
the squadron, Dewey watched the progress of his 
ships. In the conning tower, eagerly awaiting the 
word to fire, was Captain Gridley. At last, with a 
final glance at the shore, Dewey bent over the rail. 

"You may fire when ready, Gridley," he said, 
quietly. 

373 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

Ready! Surely that was satire on Dewey's part, 
for just one second later the bridge under his feet 
leaped like a springboard as the great gun beneath it 
gave the signal. Scarcely had the shell left the 
muzzle when an answering roar came from the other 
ships. The battle had begun, the Spanish ships were 
riddled with a shower of bursting shells, their crews 
cut to pieces, and the ships themselves set on fire. 
The guns of the American squadron roared with 
clocklike regularity, while the firing from the Span- 
ish ships steadily decreased. Two hours of this work, 
and the smoke hung so heavy over the water that it 
was difficult to distinguish the enemy's ships. 

"What time is it, Eees?" asked Dewey, of his 
executive officer. 

" Seven forty-five, sir.'' 

" Breakfast time," said Dewey, with a queer smile. 
" Run up the signals, ^ Cease firing,' and ^ Follow 



me.' " 



Again it was a lesson from Farragut, and Dewey, 
steaming back down the harbor, signalled " Let the 
men go to breakfast." His captains, coming aboard 
the Olympia, gave a series of reports unique in naval 
history. Not a man had been killed, not a gun dis- 
abled, not a ship seriously injured. Three hours 
were devoted to cooling off and cleaning the guns, 
getting up more ammunition, and breakfast was 
leisurely eaten. 

Meanwhile, across the bay, on the riddled and 
sinking Spanish ships the wildest confusion reigned. 
At eleven o'clock, the American fleet was seen again 



OlyA 



Great Sailors 

approaching, and a few mimites later, that terrible 
storm of fire recommenced. There was practically 
no reply. Three of the Spanish ships were on fire, 
and their magazines exploded one after another with 
a mighty roar; a broadside from the Baltimore sank 
a fourth; a shell from the Raleigh exploded the 
magazine of a fifth, and so, one by one, the Spanish 
ships were blown to pieces, until not one remained. 
An hour later, the shore batteries had been silenced, 
and Dewey hoisted the signal, " Cease firing." 

So ended the greatest naval battle since Trafalgar 
— a battle which riveted the attention of the world, 
and brought home to Europe a realization of the fact 
that here was a new world-power to be reckoned 
with. "With six ships, carrying 1,668 men and fifty- 
three guns, Dewey had destroyed the Spanish squad- 
ron of nine ships, carrying 1,875 men and forty-two 
guns; not an American had been killed, and only 
six wounded, while the Spanish loss was 618 killed 
and wounded; and not an American vessel had been 
injured. And, in addition to destroying the Spanish 
fleet, a series of powerful shore batteries had been 
silenced, and the way prepared for the American 
occupation of the Philippines. Dewey^s place as one 
of the great commanders of history was secure. 

News of the victory created the wildest excite- 
ment and enthusiasm in the United States. Dewey 
became a popular hero, and when he returned from 
the Philippines, was welcomed with triumphal hon- 
ors, which recalled the great days of the Roman 
empire. He was commissioned admiral of the navy, 

375 



A Guide to Biography 

a rank which had heen created for Farragut, and 
which has been held by only two men besides him. 
Another great American naval victory marked 
the brief war with Spain — the destruction of Admiral 
Cervera's powerful fleet as it tried to escape from the 
harbor of Santiago, Cuba, on the third day of July, 
1898 — a victory which made the Independence Day 
which followed one long to be remembered in the 
United States. There, as at Manila, the entire Span- 
ish fleet was destroyed, without a single American 
vessel being seriously injured, and with a loss of 
only one killed and one wounded on the American 
side. But the victory at Santiago was the victory 
of no one man. The ranking officer, William Thomas 
Sampson, was miles away when the engagement be- 
gan. The next in rank, Winfield Scott Schley, so 
conducted himself that he was brought before a court 
of inquiry. The battle was really fought and won 
by the commanders of the various ships — Robley 
D. Evans, John W. Philip, Charles E. Clark, Henry 
C. Taylor, Bichard Wainwright — ^by the very simple 
procedure of getting as close to the enemy as they 
could, and hammering him as hard as their guns 
would let them. One and all, they behaved with 
the utmost gallantry. But most remarkable of all 
in the history of the navy from first to last has been 
the superb work of the "men behind the guns," 
whose marksmanship has been the despair and envy 
of the world. 



376 



Great Sailors 

SUMMARY 
Jones, John Paul. Born at Kirkbean, Kirkcud- 
brightshire, Scotland, July 6, 1747; settled in Virginia, 
1773; appointed first lieutenant in American navy, 
1775; commanded Ranger and cruised in the Irish sea, 
1777-78; sailed from France in Bon Homme Eichard, 
August 14, 1779; fought Serapis, September 23, 1779; 
resigned from American service, entered the French 
and later the Eussian navy, served under Potemkin in 
the Black Sea with rank of rear-admiral; returned to 
Paris, 1790; died there, July 18, 1792. 

BiDDLE, Nicholas. Born at Philadelphia, Septem- 
ber 10, 1750; captain in American navy, 1775; ap- 
pointed to command the Eandolph, June 6, 1776; 
killed when ship blew up in fight with Yarmouth, 
March 7, 1778. 

Porter, David. Born at Boston, February 1, 1780 ; 
entered navy, 1798; served in Tripolitan war, 1801-03; 
commander of the Essex in war of 1812; defeated and 
taken prisoner in Valparaiso harbor, March 28, 1814; 
resigned, 1826; commander of Mexican naval forces, 
1826-29; United States minister to Turkey, 1831-43; 
died at Pera, Constantinople, March 3, 1843. 

Hull, Isaac. Born at Derby, Connecticut, March 9, 
1773; entered navy, 1798; served in war with Tripoli, 
1801-03; sailed from Boston in command of the Con- 
stitution, August 2, 1812; defeated Guerriere, August 
19, 1812; remained in navy till end of life; died at 
Philadelphia, February 13, 1843. 

Decatur, Stephen. Born at Sinnepuxent, Mary- 
land, January 5, 1779; entered navy, 1798; burned 
frigate Philadelphia in harbor of Tripoli, February 16, 

377 



A Guide to Biography 

1804; commanded frigate United States in war of 
1812; captured British frigate, Macedonian, October 
25, 1812; captured by British fleet, January 15, 1815; 
killed in a duel with James Barron, near Bladensburg, 
Maryland, March 22, 1820. 

Bainbeidge, William. Born at Princeton, New 
Jersey, May 7, 1774; lieutenant-commandant in quasi- 
naval-war with France, 1798; commanded Philadelphia 
in Tripolitan war; captured by Tripolitans, November 
1, 1804; commander of Constitution in war of 1812; 
captured British frigate Java, December 29, 1812; 
served in navy till death at Philadelphia, July 28, 1833. 

Lawrence, James. Born at Burlington, New Jer- 
sey, October 1, 1781; entered navy, 1798; served in 
Tripolitan war, 1801-03; sailed from Boston in the 
Chesapeake, and defeated by British frigate Shannon, 
June 1, 1813 ; died at sea from wound received in bat- 
tle, June 6, 1813. 

Preble, Edward. Born at Falmouth (now Port- 
land), Maine, August 15, 1761; served as midshipman 
during Revolution; commissioned lieutenant, February 
9, 1798; captain, May 15, 1799; commanded squadron 
operating against Barbary States, 1803-04; died at 
Portland, Maine, August 25, 1807. 

Stewart, Charles. Born at Philadelphia, July 28, 
1778; lieutenant in United States navy, March 9, 
1798; served in war with Tripoli; captain, April 22, 
1806; commanded Constitution, 1813-14, capturing 
many prizes; remained in navy till death, rising to 
rank of rear-admiral; died at Bordentown, New Jersey, 
November 6, 1869. 

378 



Great Sailors 

Blakeley, Johnston. Born near Seaford, County 
Down, Ireland, October, 1781; brought to America, 
1783; entered navy as midshipman, February 5, 1800; 
lieutenant, February 10, 1807 ; master commander, July 
24, 1813; sailed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 
the Wasp, May 1, 1814; captured Eeindeer, sunk Avon, 
captured Atalanta; the Wasp was spoken by a Swedish 
ship, October 9, 1814, and never seen again. 

Macdonough, Thomas. Born in Newcastle County, 
Delaware, December 23, 1783; entered the navy as mid- 
shipman, 1800; served in war against Tripoli; lieuten- 
ant, 1807; master commander, 1813; defeated British 
squadron under Downie on Lake Champlain, Septem- 
ber 11, 1814; died at sea, November 16, 1825. 

Perry, Oliver Hazard. Born in South Kingston, 
Rhode Island, August 23, 1785; entered navy as mid- 
shipman, April 7, 1799; served in war with Tripoli; 
lieutenant, 1807; ordered to Lake Erie, February 17, 
1813; reached Erie, March 27, 1813; defeated British 
fleet, September 10, 1813; assisted in defense of Balti- 
more, 1814; commanded Java and John Adams; died 
at Port Spain, Island of Trinidad, August 23, 1819. 

Perry, Matthew Calbraith. Born at Newport, 
Rhode Island, April 10, 1794; entered navy as midship- 
man, 1809 ; lieutenant, February 27, 1813 ; saw distin- 
guished service in many ships and many waters ; master- 
commandant, January 7, 1833 ; captain, March 15, 
1837; commodore, June 12, 1841; commanded fleet at 
capture of Vera Cruz, 1844; organized and commanded 
expedition to Japan, delivering President's letter to 
the Mikado, July 14, 1853, and signing treaty, March 
31, 1854; died in New York City, March 4, 1858. 

379 



A Guide to Biography 

Parragut, David Glasgow. Born at Campbell's 
Station, Tennessee, July 5, 1801; adopted by David 
Porter and given commission as midshipman, 1810; 
served under Porter in the Essex, 1813-14; lieutenant, 
1821; commander, 1841; captain, 1855; appointed 
commander of squadron to reduce New Orleans, Janu- 
ary, 1862; passed the forts below New Orleans on the 
night of April 23-24, 1862; compelled surrender of 
city, April 25, 1862; passed batteries at Vicksburg, 
June 28, 1862; rear-admiral, July 16, 1862; fought 
battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864; vice-admiral, 
1864; admiral, 1866; died at Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, August 14, 1870. 

Craven, Tunis Augustus Macdonough. Born at 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, January 11, 1813; en- 
tered navy as midshipman, 1829; served in various 
ships and in coast survey; commander, April, 1861; 
given command of monitor Tecumseh, with post of 
honor in battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864; struck 
torpedo and sank almost instantly, carrying down 
Craven and almost everyone else on board. 

Semmes, Raphael. Born in Charles County, Mary- 
land, September 27, 1809; midshipman in navy, 1826; 
lieutenant, 1837; at siege of Vera Cruz, 1847; com- 
mander in Confederate navy, April 4, 1861 ; took com- 
mand of Alabama, August, 1863; Alabama destroyed 
by Kearsarge, June 19, 1864; guarded water approaches 
to Richmond, 1865; after war, engaged in practice of 
law until his death at Mobile, Alabama, August 30, 
1877. 

WiNSLOW, John Ancrum. Born at Wilmington, 
North Carolina, November 19, 1811; entered navy as 
midshipman, 1827; lieutenant, 1839; commander, 

380 



Great Sailors 

1855; captain, 1862; commanded Kearsarge on special 
service in pursuit of Alabama, 1863-64; sank Alabama, 
June 19, 1864; rear-admiral, 1870; died at Boston, 
Massachusetts, September 29, 1873. 

Buchanan, Franklin. Born at Baltimore, Mary- 
land, September 17, 1800; entered navy as midship- 
man, 1815; lieutenant, 1825; master-commandant, 
1841; organized naval academy at Annapolis, 1845; at 
siege of Vera Cruz, 1847; commanded flagship in Per- 
ry's Japan expedition, 1852; captain, 1855; comman- 
dant Washington navy yard, 1859 ; entered Confederate 
service, September, 1861 ; commanded Merrimac in 
Hampton Eoads and Tennessee in Mobile Bay; died in 
Talbot County, Maryland, May 11, 1874. 

WoRDEN, John Loeimer. Born in Westchester 
County, New York, March 12, 1818; entered navy, 
1840; lieutenant, 1846; taken prisoner while returning 
North from Fort Pickens, 1861; released after seven 
months' captivity, and appointed to the Monitor; met 
Merrimac in Hampton Eoads, March 9, 1862 ; received 
thanks of Congress and commissioned commander, 
July, 1862; captain, February, 1863; commodore, 
1868; superintendent of naval academy, 1870-74; rear- 
admiral, 1872; retired, 1886; died at Washington, Oc- 
tober 18, 1897. 

Bewey, George. Born at Montpelier, Vermont, 
December 26, 1837; entered naval academy, 1854 
graduated, 1858; with Farragut on Mississippi, 1862 
commander, 1872; captain, 1884; commodore, 1896 
fought battle of Manila Bay, May 1, 1898 ; thanked by 
Congress and promoted rear-admiral, 1898; admiral, 
1899. 

381 



INDEX 



Adams, John, 84, 89-92, 124, 

174, 175, 177, 208, 263. 
Adams, John Quincy, 98-100, 

109, 110, 125, 186. 
Adams, Samuel, 84, 175-178, 

179, 208-209, 263. 
Allen, Eliza, 240-241. 
Allen, Ethan, 270. 
Anderson, Robert, 191. 
Arnold, Benedict, 267-271, 

276, 277, 311-312, 313. 
Arthur, Chester Alan, 153, 

166-167. 
Astor, John Jacob, 250. 
Atkinson, Henry, 303. 
Austin, Moses, 243. 

Bainbridge, William, 334, 

337-340, 342, 343, 378. 
Banks, Nathaniel P., 301. 
Barnes, James, 22. 
Barron, James, 337. 
Beauregard, Pierre, 304-305, 

306, 317-318. 
Bee, Bernard E., 299, 300. 
Benton, Jesse, 104. 
Benton, Thomas Hart, 191, 

211. 
Berkeley, Lord, 62. 
Biddle, Nicholas, 322, 328, 

377. 



Blaine, James G., 151, 152, 

153, 155, 186, 205-207, 

213. 
Blakeley, Johnston, 342, 344- 

345, 379. 
Boggs, Charles Stuart, 370. 
Boone, Daniel, 215-221, 222, 

223, 225, 226, 234, 258. 
Boone, Squire, 219. 
Booth, John Wilkes, 141-142, 

164. 
Bowie, James, 18, 246-250, 

260. 
Braddock, Edward, 82, 123, 

267, 273, 275, 311. 
Bradford, William, 21, 54-57, 

74. 
Bragg, Braxton, 308. 
Breckenridge, John C, 138. 
Broke, Philip, 341. 
Brooks, Preston, 212. 
Brown, John, 122, 295, 316. 
Bryan, William Jennings, 

160-161. 
Buchanan, Franklin, 356, 363- 

366, 381. 
Buchanan, James, 113, 121- 

123, 127-128, 191, 257. 
Buell, Don Carlos, 293. 
Burgoyne, John, 267-269, 270, 

275, 311, 313, 325. 



382 



Index 



Burnside, Ambrose E., 285, 

297, 314-315. 
Burr, Aaron, 179-183, 205, 

209-210, 245. 
Butler, Benjamin, 355. 
Butler, Simon; see Kenton, 

Simon. 
Byllinge, Edward, 62. 

Cabot, John, 36-37, 40, 70. 
Cabot, Sebastian, 36-37, 70. 
Calhoun, John Caldwell, 21, 

111, 115, 184-190, 201, 211. 
Carson, Kit, 265. 
Carteret, Sir George, 62. 
Cartier, Jacques, 39, 49, 72. 
Carver, Jonathan, 55. 
Cass, Lewis, 118, 191, 211. 
Catlin, George, 251. 
Champlain, Samuel, 49-51, 

73. 
Chase, Salmon Portland, 200, 

212. 
Clark, Charles E., 376. 
Clark, George Rogers, 223, 

225-232, 234, 235, 258. 
Clark, William, 235-237, 250, 

259. 
Clay, Henry, 22, 99, 109, 114, 

115, 116, 117, 184-190, 205, 

206, 210. 
Cleveland, Grover, 154-159, 

160, 164, 167. 
Columbus, Bartholomew, 26, 

29. 
Columbus, Christopher, 16, 

17, 19, 20, 25-36, 54, 69- 

70. 
Columbus, Diego, 29, 
Conkling, Roscoe, 205-206. 



Cornwallis, Charles, 85, 124, 

272, 278, 311, 313, 328. 
Coronado, Francisco Vasquez 

de, 39, 72. 
Craven, Tunis Augustus Mac- 

donough, 18, 360-361, 380. 
Crockett, David, 18, 246-250, 

256, 260. 
Gushing, William B., 370. 
Ouster, George A., 309. 
Custis, Mrs. Martha, 82, 123. 
Custis, Mary Randolph, 295. 
Custis, Washington Parke, 

295. 
Cutler, Manasseh, 233. 

Davis, Jefferson, 139, 201-204, 

213, 280, 303, 305, 306. 
Decatur, Stephen, 332-337, 

339, 341, 377-378. 
Delaware, Thomas West, 

Lord, 48. 
De Leon, Juan Ponce, 38, 39, 

71. 
Dewey, George, 370-376, 381. 
Dinwiddle, Robert, 80, 81. 
Douglas, Stephen A., 133-136, 

138, 164, 191-193, 211. 
Drake, Sir Francis, 38-39, 

72. 

Early, Jubal Anderson, 291. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 180. 
Ericsson, John, 367. 
Evans, Robley D., 376. 
Everett, Edward, 193-194, 
211-212. 

Fairfax, Thomas, Lord, 78. 
Fairfax, William, 78. 



383 



Index 



Fannin, James W., 243. 
Farragut, David Glasgow, 15, 

17, 22, 330, 351-360, 366, 

370, 371-372, 373, 374, 376, 

380, 381. 
Ferdinand of Aragon, 29, 31, 

35. 
Fillmore, Millard, 119, 127. 
Fiske, John, 21, 22. 
Ford, Paul Leicester, 21. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 15, 21, 

169-174, 207, 208, 325. 
Franklin, William Buel, 301. 
Fremont, John C, 122, 198, 

250, 251, 255-257, 261. 

Gage, Thomas, 175. 
Garfield, James Abram, 114, 

152-153, 166, 206. 
Gates, Horatio, 267-269, 271, 

272, 311, 312, 313. 
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 42. 
Gorman, Arthur P., 157. 
Grant, Ulysses Simpson, 22, 

141, 148-150, 152, 153, 165- 
166, 206, 280, 285, 286- 
288, 289, 290, 292, 293, 
298, 303, 304, 306, 308, 
310, 316, 317. 

Greeley, Horace, 139. 

Greene, Nathanael, 267, 272, 

273, 276, 311, 312. 
Gridley, Charles Vernon, 373. 
Guiteau, Charles J., 152-153, 

166. 

Hale, Nathan, 18. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 21, 89, 
91, 96, 179-183, 205, 209. 



Hamilton, Henry, 229. 
Hancock, John, 175-178, 209, 

322, 323. 
Hancock, Winfield Scott, 293. 
Hanks, Nancy, 129-130. 
Hanna, Mark, 161. 
Harding, Chester, 221. 
Harrison, Benjamin, 157, 

159-160, 167, 207. 
Harrison, William Henrj^, 

114-115, 126, 148, 159, 186, 

224, 350. 
Hay, John, 207. 
Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, 

114, 151-152, 166, 201, 

206. 
Hayne, Robert Young, 187, 

188, 189. 
Heath, William, 266. 
Henderson, Richard, 218, 226. 
Henry, Patrick, 132, 178-179, 

209, 226, 227. 
Heriot, Robert, 348. 
Herkimer, Nicholas, 267. 
Hill, A. P., 299, 308. 
Hood, John Bell, 293, 316. 
Hooker, Joseph, 280, 285- 

286, 287, 297, 301, 315. 
Hopkins, Ezekial, 323. 
Houston, Felix, 317. 
Houston, Sam, 116, 238-246, 

248, 259-260. 
Howard, Oliver Otis, 302. 
Hubbard, Elbert, 22. 
Hudson, Henry, 39-40, 59, 

72-73. 
Hulburt, Archer Butler, 22. 
Hull, Isaac, 330-332, 340, 

341, 377. 
Hull, William, 191, 330. 



384 



Index 



Ingersoll, Robert G., 206. 
Isabella of Castile, 29, 30, 
31, 35. 

Jackson, Andrew, 15, 21, 99, 
101-113, 114, 121, 122, 125- 
126, 148, 156, 163, 164, 186, 
189, 190, 191, 239, 240, 
241, 242, 244, 245, 246, 
247, 279, 280, 281, 329, 352. 

Jackson, Thomas Jonathan, 
22, 287, 290, 297, 299-302, 
307, 308, 311, 317. 

James, Reuben, 335-336. 

Jay, John, 208. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 13, 21, 89, 
90, 91, 92-95, 96, 98, 124, 
155, 174, 178, 181, 227, 
235, 236, 259, 276, 323. 

John II., King of Portugal, 
28. 

Johnson, Andrew, 143-148, 
165, 196, 197, 199, 203, 
212. 

Johnston, Albert Sidney, 280, 
302-304, 311, 317, 318. 

Johnston, Joseph E., 289- 
290, 296, 305-306, 308, 315, 
318, 319. 

Joliet, Louis, 52, 73-74. 

Jones, John Paul, 320-328, 
329, 344, 377. 

Jones, William, 321. 

Jones, William Paul, 321. 

Kearny, Stephen Watts, 257. 
Kenton, Simon, 221-225, 228, 

234, 258. 
Kilpatrick, Hugh Judson, 293. 
King, Rufus, 97. 



La Salle, Robert Cavalier, 
51-54, 73, 79. 

Lawrence, James, 18, 340- 
342, 347, 378. 

Lee, Charles, 266. 

Lee, " Light Horse Harry," 
272-274, 294, 311, 313. 

Lee, Robert Edward, 22, 141, 
148, 149, 203, 274, 280, 283, 
284, 285, 286, 289, 292, 
294-299, 301, 302, 305, 306, 
307, 308, 310, 315, 316-317. 

Lewis, Meriwether, 235-237, 
250, 259. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 15, 16, 19, 
21, 113, 129-143, 144, 145, 
146, 147, 152, 164-165, 192, 
193, 198-199, 200, 257, 289. 

Lincoln, Thomas, 129-131. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot, 21. 

Longstreet, James, 306-307, 
318. 

Lovejoy, Amos, 253. 

Lowell, James Russell, 143. 

Lummis, Charles F., 21. 

McCardle, Eliza, 144-145. 
Maclay, Edward Stanton, 22. 
McClellan, George B., 282- 

286, 287, 296, 297, 301, 305, 

307, 314, 318. 
Macdonough, Thomas, 342, 

345-346, 379. 
McDowell, Irwin, 301, 305. 
McKinley, William, 159, 161- 

163, 167, 168. 
McPhersou, James Birdseye, 

293, 
IMadison, James, 95-97, 125, 

340. 



385 



Index 

Magellan, Ferdinand, 38, 71. Pearson, Richard, 320, 326, 

Magruder, John Bankhead, 327. 

308. Pemberton, John Clifford, 308. 

Mansfield, Joseph King Fenno, Penn, William, 21, 62-66, 74. 

301. Perry, Matthew Calbraith, 

Marchena, Juan Perez de, 30. 350-351, 364, 379, 381. 

Marion, Francis, 272-273, 311, Perry, Oliver Hazard, 346- 

312. 350, 379. 

]\Iarquette, Jacques, 52, 74. Philip, John W., 376. 

Marshall, Humphrey, 166. Philip, King, 41. 

Marshall, James Wilson, 255. Pierce, Benjamin, 119. 

Marshall, John, 183-184, 210. Pierce, Franklin Scott, 114, 

Meade, George G., 280, 286, 119-121, 127, 200, 280, 282. 

293. Pike, Zebulon, 237, 259. 

Milam, Benjamin R., 243. Pocahontas, 45, 46. 

Miles, Nelson A., 309-310, Polk, James Knox, 114, 116- 

319. 117, 126-127, 281. 

Minuit, Peter, 59. Pomeroy, Seth, 266. 

Monroe, James, 89, 97-98, Pope, John, 293, 297, 301, 

125, 158, 189, 201, 211. 307. 

Montgomery, Richard, 266. Porter, David, 352. 

JNIoody, William, 251. Porter, David, jr., 329-330, 

Morris, Robert, 174. 345, 352-353, 377, 380. 

Porter, David Dixon, 370. 



Newport, Christopher, 43, 44, 

46. 
Nicolet, Jean, 51, 73. 



PoAvhatan, The, 41, 45. 

Preble, Edward, 333, 334, 
339, 342-343, 378. 

Putnam, Elizabeth, 263. 

Putnam, Israel, 232, 263-266, 
Oglethorpe, James, 66-69, 75. 311. 

Ortiz, Juan, 45. Putnam, Joseph, 263. 

Putnam, Rufus, 232-234, 

258-259. 
Pakenham, Edward Michael, 

106, 107, 108. 

Parker, Theodore, 23. Raleigh, Sir Walter, 42-43. 

Parkman, Francis, 20, 21. Reed, Deborah, 171-172. 

Paul, John, 321. Revere, Paul, 175. 

Paul, John; see Jones, John Rolfe, John, 46. 

Paul. Roosevelt, Theodore, 162-163, 
Paul, William, 321. 167-168. 

386 



Index 



Root, Elihu, 207. 

Rosecrans, William Starke, 

293. 
Rusk, Thomas Jefferson, 244, 

245. 

St. Clair, Arthur, 233, 274- 

276, 313. 
St. Leger, Barry, 270. 
Saltonstall, Dudley, 323. 
Sampson, William Thomas, 

376. 
Santa Anna, 127, 243, 244, 

245, 248, 249, 281. 
Santangel, Luis de, 30, 31. 
Schley, Winfield Scott, 376. 
Schuyler, Philip John, 267, 

311. 
Scott, Winfield, 119, 120, 188, 

245, 280-282, 292, 295, 305, 

310, 314. 

Scudder, Horace E., 21. 
Semmes, Raphael, 361-363, 

380. 
Seward, William H., 137, 

194-200, 212. 
Shaw, Robert Gould, 18. 
Sheridan, Philip Henry, 287, 

290-292, 293, 294, 307, 308, 

311, 315-316. 

Sherman, John, 152, 199, 

200-201, 212-213. 
Sherman, William Tecumseh, 

280, 287-290, 292, 293, 

304, 305, 306, 308, 309, 

315, 316, 318, 319. 
Skelton, Martha, 93. 
Smith, John, 21, 43-49, 73, 

76. 
Soto, Hernando de, 39, 45, 72. 



Spalding, H. H., 251. 
Spencer, Joseph, 266. 
Stark, John, 267. 
Stephens, Alexander H., 201- 

205, 213. 
Stevens, Thaddeus, 147, 194- 

200, 201, 212. 
Stewart, Charles, 342, 343, 

378. 
Stuart, J. E. B., 296, 307- 

308, 318-319. 
Stuyvesant, Peter, 21, 60-62, 

74. 
Sullivan, John, 266. 
Sumner, Charles, 194-200, 

212. 
Sumner, Edwin Vose, 293, 

301. 
Sumter, Thomas, 102, 272- 

273, 312. 
Sutter, John Augustus, 250, 

254-256, 260-261. 



Taft, William Howard, 163, 

168. 
Tarleton, Guy, 272, 312. 
Taylor, Henry C, 376. 
Taylor, Zacharj^ 22, 114, 

118-119, 120, 127, 148, 202, 

280, 281. 
Tecumseh, 115. 
Thomas, George H., 280, 292- 

293, 316. 
Thomas, John, 266. 
Tilden, Samuel J., 151. 
Todd, Dolly Payne, 96. 
Todd, Mary, 132. 
Toscanelli, Paolo del Pozzo, 

27, 32. 



387 



Index 



Travis, William Barrett, 18, 

243, 246-250, £60. 
Tyler, John, 115-116, 126, 

211. 

Van Buren, Martin, 113-114, 

115, 118, 126, 191. 
Veach, William, 221. 
Vespucci, Amerigo, 37, 71. 

Wainwright, Richard, 376. 

Ward, Artemus, 266. 

Washington, Augustine, 76, 
77, 78. 

Washington, George, 14, 15, 
16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 76-89, 
90, 92, 93, 97, 123-124, 
129, 137, 150, 164, 174, 
175, 177, 180, 181, 183, 
194, 209, 262, 266, 269, 
271, 272, 274, 275, 276, 
277, 278, 279, 282, 295, 
310, 312. 



Washington, Lawrence, 76, 

78, 79, 83. 
Wayne, Anthony, 224, 234, 

258, 259, 276-279, 313-314. 
Webster, Daniel, 21, 110, 184- 

190, 193, 194, 198, 210. 
Welles, Gideon, 364. 
Wesley, Charles, 68. 
Wheeler, Joseph, 309, 319. 
Whitfield, George, 69. 
Whitman, Marcus, 117, 250- 

254, 260. 
Whittier, John G., 257. 
Williams, Roger, 57-59, 74. 
Wilson, Woodrow, 21. 
Winslow, John Ancrum, 361- 

363, 380-381. 
Wooster, David, 266. 
Worden, John Lorimer, 367- 

370, 381. 



York, Duke of, 61, 62, 63, 64. 



388 



DEC 151299 



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